Heated Romance
by Lianalin
Summary: Zuko meets Lin OC  in the Western Air Temple. She joins the avatar team and slowly falls in love with the fire prince. they have to face twist and turns along the way like any romance, but theirs is humorous and entertaining. I've rated this story mature because there is suggestive content.
1. Heated Romance Chapter 1

**Chapter One -The Western Air Temple:**

I felt the sun on my face as I woke up, stretching my arms and legs I loosened my stiff muscles. It was a new day at the Western Air Temple; I sat up and looked at the family portrait I had standing on my dresser. A pang of sadness filled my heart at the remembrance of my parents. They'd brought me to this deserted place when I was five years old. They thought that by hiding my water bending skills I'd be safe from the fire nation. Since the air temple had been abandoned for over a century it seemed like the perfect hiding place. Sadly when I was around ten my parents went on a hunting mission and never came back. I sighed and grabbed the brush that I kept on the dresser next to the picture. Then I braided my hair so it would stay out of my face.

I walked out of my room wearing my mother's traditional water tribe attire, it consisted of a blue outer tunic edged in lighter blue it had only one strap off the right shoulder. Underneath the outer tunic I had on a pair of dark blue pants, for shoes I had on light tan boots. I lived near the water fountain in the main air temple. As I walked into the sunlight I heard voices, two I could tell were male, and two more were definitely female. They seemed to be discussing plans of some sort. I caught something about finding the avatar a firebending teacher. I peered around the corner to get a better look at the people. My mouth dropped open and my dark eyes widened.

One male was wearing the same blue tunic as me only the masculine form; he also had similar boots and pants. I was dressed almost identical to one of the girls. The only difference between us was that she had blue warps around her forearm, and her outer tunic covered her shoulders. There was also a younger boy with a blue arrow prominent on his forehead. He was wearing the orange and yellow colors of the Air Nomads but he had on pants and boots from the Fire Nation. The second girl had a black bob hair due and I could see that she was blind. She was wearing a grass green under shirt and matching pants, over that was a light green over tunic. She also had no shoes on, suggesting that she was an earthbender.

"Guys there's another girl over there." The green clothed girl pointed directly at me. Instead of running I stepped out from my now obvious hiding place, I figured it be better to meet them than to have them chase me.

"She's wearing the same cloths as Katara." Said the boy with the blue arrow on his head.

"Who are you?" asked the girl in blue, I assumed her name was Katara since we were dressed alike.

"My name is Lin." I said shyly. These were the first people I'd seen in over six years.

"You look familiar." Said the boy in blue, "Where did you come from?" he asked.

"Well I was born into the Southern Water Tribe, my parents brought me here to hide me from the Fire Nation." I replied, I looked down and my face turned red at the close examination the blue boy was giving me.

"Katara didn't Dad have a brother who left the tribe with his wife and daughter when I was five?"

"Sokka I wouldn't know I was only three." Said Katara.

Something about his name registered in my brain, it brought back a memory of when I was younger.

_A snowball hit me in the back and I laughed, "Sokka that wasn't fair!" I shouted, but I threw a snowball back at the young boy. He threw another one at me, and this time when I threw the snow it turned to water and drenched Sokka._

"Did you say his name was Sokka?" I asked curiously.

"Yea." Said Katara, as she looked at me funny.

"Do you have a Gran-Gran?" I asked questioningly.

"Katara she's our cousin! She was the only water bender with dark brown eyes." Sokka said enthusiastically.

"I have a picture of my parents back in my room." I stated, wondering if maybe he'd recognize a younger me, or my parents even.

"Go get it!" said Sokka exuberantly. So I ran back to my room. It took me a few minutes to get to there; I looked at the picture on my dresser. I sincerely hoped that Sokka would recognize someone in the painting. Once I had it in my hand I ran down two flights of stairs and through the long hallway leading into the fountain area.

When I got back to the fountain area there was another boy present only he looked to be about 17 or so. He had a striking scar on the left side of his face, and the red clothing and golden eyes that are attributed to the Fire Nation.

"Why aren't you saying anything? You once said you thought we could be friends. You know I have good in me." said the stranger.

"There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done. We'll never let you join us." Said Arrow Boy.

"You need to get out of here." Katara said angrily as she glared at the stranger, I felt bad for him, he seemed like he meant what he was saying.

"I'm trying to explain that I'm not that person anymore." Stranger said vehemently.

"Either you leave or we attack." Sokka said seriously.

"If you wont accept me as a friend, then maybe you'll take me as a prisoner." Stranger said this rather sadly.

"No we wont!" Katara shouted, then threw a strong current of water at Stranger. He fell back. I took a step foreword it wasn't fair for them to gang up on him this way. "Get out of here now and don't come back, if we ever see you again…well we better not see you again." Said Katara threateningly. With that the stranger walked down the stairs and out of sight.

I felt bad for him; he looked so sad and alone. "Who was that?" I asked once everyone relaxed again.

"His name is Zuko he's the Prince of the Fire Nation. He's hunted us and on multiple occasions has tried to capture the avatar." Said Katara as she pointed to Arrow Boy.

"You're the avatar?" I asked in disbelief.

"He sure is." Said Green Girl.

"Um…could I ask what your names are?" it was getting annoying referring to their physical appearances.

"I'm Aang." Said Arrow Boy, who was also the avatar.

"I'm Toph, and I'm Aang's earthbending instructor." Said Green Girl with a smile.

"Could I see the picture now?" asked Sokka as he looked at me. I handed the painting to him and watched his face. He smiled and looked up at me. "You're definitely our cousin. I'd recognize that face anywhere we'd have snowball fights all the time." Said Sokka with a laugh.

"Really? This is so cool! I haven't had any one to talk to in like six years and I meet my cousins." I said excitedly.

"Where are you're parents?" asked Aang.

"Dead, they went hunting one day and never came back." I said sadly.

"I'm sorry." Said Katara.

"It's ok, it's not your fault. So why didn't you give that Zuko person a chance? I know you said that he's tried to capture Aang a thousand times and stuff but he sounded sincere."

"Because he's only trying to trick us so then he can stab us in the back." Said Sokka angrily.

"But he was telling the truth." Said Toph.

"What?" asked Aang, Katara, and Sokka all at the same time.

"About being different and everything. Besides we need him to teach Aang firebending. We don't have anyone else and it's not like we're going to find a replacement anytime soon." Said Toph.

"It doesn't matter Toph. I don't want Zuko to teach me." said Aang.

Toph left in a huff after that, she seemed like she had some sort of plan as she stormed off and I wanted to go with her. "Hey guys I'm going to go berry picking. I'll be back in a little while." I said then disappeared after Toph.

She wasn't kidding about being an earthbender. She'd carved a tunnel leading out and into the forest. I followed her tracks then hid behind a tree when I spotted a red tent covered in moss. There was a small fire going in front of the tent, the camp was silent. Then Toph accidentally stepped on a twig. I watched as Zuko sat up and cried, "Whose there?" Toph didn't say anything and when she appeared Zuko had already shot the flame out of his hand.

Toph protected herself by sending up a towering form of rock, but the fire went around it, and she took a step backwards and accidentally stepped on the flames with both her feet. She cried and fell backward with a yell of, "You burned my feet!" both Zuko and I rushed to help her.

"It was an accident I swear. Let me help you." Said Zuko.

"No stay away from me, you burned my feet!" Toph shouted and then threw clumps of rock behind her hoping to hit Zuko.

"Leave her alone." I said demandingly as I stepped in between Toph and Zuko.

"Who're you?" Zuko asked rather confused.

"It doesn't matter." I said and followed Toph back towards the temples. Although I did feel bad for Zuko, he hadn't meant to hurt her and he truly wanted to help her. I faintly heard a cry off in the distance, and it sounded like, "Why am I so bad at being good?"

"Lin you have to go and convince him that he has to teach Aang." Said Toph stubbornly.

"But what about you?" I asked. If I'd had any form of water I'd be able to heal her feet for her.

"I'll be ok I promise." Said Toph.

"But your poor feet." I stated.

" I know, but having Zuko train Aang is more important you must go back to him."

"Ok I'll go, but what if he doesn't believe me?" I asked.

"He will, just go." She said, I looked at her and then walked back towards the little red tent.

It took me a few minutes to find the tent again, "I'm a friend." I called out as I stepped into the light of his fire. He was sitting on a log just staring into the flames.

"Who are you?" he asked as he looked up at me.

"A friend, I mean you know harm. I'm Sokka and Katara's cousin." I smiled at him.

"Why are you out in the middle of no where?" he asked looking at me. I had the weirdest sensation enter my stomach, one I'd never felt before. It was like I had a whole bunch of butterflies trapped inside me.

"My parents took me away from my tribe when I was little to protect me from the Fire Nation. I'm a water bender like Katara." I tossed a stick onto the fire and watched the flames as they danced.

"What are you doing here? Didn't they tell you everything I've done to them?" he asked, he sounded angry but it was directed more at himself than at me.

"No, and besides you said yourself your no longer the person you used to be." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Oh…" he looked up at me.

"Have you ever had a real friend before?" I asked him and meet his gaze.

"You're eyes are such a dark brown. I've never seen a water bender with brown eyes."

"Nice way to avoid my question, and yea my Mother was from the Earth Nation I inherited her eyes."

"Oh, and no not really. The only person who has ever cared about me is my Uncle, and now he's gone." He turned away from me then.

"Well Zuko I'm going to be your friend, as long as you'll be mine." I said with a smile.

"Ok, I don't know how to be a good friend though, and how did you know my name?" He said a little worried.

"It's ok, neither do I. They told me who you were. Besides being a friend can't be that hard. I do have a reason for coming though." I said and looked into the fire again. His eyes kept hypnotizing me.

"What was it? To tell me to leave that I'm to close to the avatar." He said angrily his temper starting to show.

"No, I was sent to convince you to teach Aang. Toph wanted me to." I just looked at him, I wanted to smile, but I thought it'd be better if I didn't.

"Oh…it's all I have left. My Uncle's disappeared and he was more of a father to me than my real father." Zuko looked back into the fire.

"Well I hope you decide to give it a go again. Maybe this time they'll let you join the group." I stood up to leave.

"Where are you going?" he asked, he sounded a little nervous.

"Back, it's my home…besides I'll see you tomorrow." I said and gave him a smile. I wanted to hug him, but it'd been years since I last talked to a human much less shown affection to one. I had to relearn everything…at least that's how I saw things.

The next morning I caught up to Toph. She'd made a huge hole in the side of the air temple so it was easy to find her, and of course everyone else. "He did fire bend at you." Said Aang's voice as I walked through the whole.

"Wait it was an accident I was there." I said going to poor Zuko's defense. He was new to being a good guy, and they weren't even giving him a chance.

"See you trusted Zuko and you got burned." Said Sokka all matter of factish.

"That's not fair." I protested.

"Lin stay out of this you don't know Zuko like we do. It's going to take a while for your feet to get better. I wish I could have looked at them sooner." Said Katara stubbornly.

"Yea me too." Said Toph.

"Why didn't you heal Toph?" asked Katara as she looked at me.

"I didn't have any water available. Maybe it's better that I don't know Zuko like you do. At least I'm giving him a chance." I said just as hotly.

Katara glared at me, "I don't want to be mad at you Lin."

"I think we should go after Zuko, he's obviously to dangerous to be alone." Said Sokka.

"You can't be serious, the whole situation was an accident." I protested, but they acted as if I wasn't there.

"I don't want to go looking for a fight, but after what he did to Toph I don't think we have a choice." Said Aang.

I snapped my jaw and glared at them all, "Did Toph even explain to you what happened?" I asked.

"Yes." Said the three of them together, they all glared at me, except Toph, who I knew was on my side.

"He's crafty but we need to find a way to capture him." said Sokka. I couldn't stand it anymore. Zuko was my new friend….

"Why don't you just invite him back here, he did offer to be a prisoner once already." Said Toph, Aang and Sokka picked her up and brought her to the fountain to help her feet.

"We'll invite him back here asking him to be our prisoner, then jump him and really make him our prisoner. He'll never suspect a thing." Said Sokka all excited.

I hit myself in the forehead with the palm of my hand. I was related to him? No sooner had they placed Toph in the fountain than a giant explosion hit the top of the air temple. I looked up and saw a giant man with a metal hand and metal foot staring at us.

Zuko swung next to the behemoth and tried to stop him, we heard him shouting not to hurt the avatar, and that the deal was off, and when he was stopped he said he'd pay the man double if he didn't kill the avatar. The man didn't stop and instead turned to face Zuko. The giant pulled his head back and what looked like a gust of wind shot out of the man's forehead and towards Zuko. He shot up a ring of fire around himself, but was pushed to the edge of the cliff that he was standing on. I watched as he fell and caught himself on a root that was sticking out the side of the mountain. I released my breath; I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

Everyone around me moved into action, and I followed. Katara and I sent jagged ice knives at the man but he managed to dodge them. Then Aang sent a tornado at him and he jumped over it.

"What is this guy?" I asked, disbelief written all over my face, I felt my eyes widen in shock.

"We call him Combustion Man." said Sokka.

"He's like…. a monster!" I said as we all ducked around a corner to hide so he wouldn't see us.

"We know." Said Katara

"He's going to blow this place right off the cliff." Said Toph worriedly.

"I cant risk going out there, and neither can Katara." I said sadly.

"She's right, if we go out there to water bend he'll blow us up." said Katara.

"I have an idea!" said Sokka. He reached behind his back and pulled down his boomerang. He released it from his grasp and sent it flying, but not until after he said, "Alright buddy don't fail me now."

Everyone watched and waited, hoping that the boomerang would get rid of Combustion Man. We all smiled as the boomerang hit Combustion Man in the center of his forehead, he was knocked down, and boomerang came back to Sokka. Just as everyone started to cheer Combustion Man stood up again.

"Awww boomerang!" wailed Sokka in disappointment.

"Wait look!" said Aang.

We all looked, and on the cliff side Combustion Man took in a deep breath and aimed like before, only this time sparks sort of shot around him. Then a giant explosion shot the smaller cliff ledge of the main cliff. Everyone ran to the edge to see what had happened, but all we saw was a large cloud of dust.

I looked up to see if Zuko was ok, and thankfully he was climbing back up the root and onto a safe ledge of the temple.

A short time later Zuko joined us back by the fountain, I smiled at him.

"I can't believe I'm actually saying this but, thanks Zuko." Said Aang. My smile widened, it looked like they might actually give him a chance. I wanted to do a little happy dance, but changed my mind.

Zuko approached, "Look I know I didn't explain myself well yesterday, but I've been through a lot in the past few years. It's been hard, but I'm realizing that I had to go through all of those things to learn the truth. I thought I'd somehow lost my honor, and that my father could return it to me. I know now that no one can give you your honor its something you earn for yourself by choosing to do what's right. All I want now is to play my part in ending this war, and I know my destiny is to help you restore balance to this world." turning to Toph he bowed, "I'm sorry for what I did to you it was an accident. Fire can be dangerous and wild, so as a fire bender I have to be more careful and control my bending so I don't hurt people unintentionally."

I hoped this would make a difference to the people around me. Zuko was a conflicted guy, and by the things he hinted at, and what people told me it was easy to understand why. He was raised thinking the Fire Nation was supreme, and that every other nation should be bellow them. He was trying to make a difference though, and it gave the Avatar a fire bending teacher.

"I think you are supposed to be my teacher. The first time I tried fire bending I burned Katara. I swore that I'd never fire bend again, but I can see you understand how easy it its to hurt the people you love. I'd like for you to teach me." Aang said this and bowed. I didn't really understand the whole bowing thing, but I went with it. I looked at Zuko's face and smiled when his eyes widened in shock. He'd gone from being shunned to being accepted in the avatar's small group of friends.

"Thank you." Said Zuko, I saw a small smile flirt across his face as he bowed.

"I'm so happy you've decided to let me into your group." Zuko said joyfully, although his voice didn't truly sound joyful. It was in his posture though, a slight relaxing of his shoulders.

"Not so fast, I still have to ask my friends if they're willing to let you in." said Aang as he turned and faced us all. I looked back at Zuko and saw that his shoulders had tightened again; he was hardening himself for rejection.

"Toph, Zuko burned you. What do you think?" Aang asked in all seriousness.

"Sure let him in, it'll give me plenty of time to get back at him for burning my feet." She said with teasing smirk on her face.

"Sokka?" inquired Aang.

"I'm ok with whatever you decide buddy." Sokka said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Katara?" Aang asked. I could see that Katara's opinion mattered the most to him. I glanced at Zuko, his eyes were slightly wider, and he looked a little nervous. His shoulders were still tense.

"I'll go along with whatever you think is right." Katara said, even though she was glaring steadily at Zuko.

"What about you Lin?" I was shocked that they were interested in my opinion.

"Wait, why are you asking me? Shouldn't I be asking you if I could join your group too?" I asked.

"You're already in the group, but what do you think?" Asked Aang.

I looked at Zuko, " I think you should let him join too. He's totally serious about teaching you and everything. Plus I'm good at reading people, and right now he's extremely nervous that you're going to kick him out again." I smiled at this, and Zuko's eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch. I considered him a friend, and hoped he understood that I was teasing.

"Well, I guess you're in Zuko." Said Aang.

"I wont let you down I promise." His golden eyes smoldered, and he looked more relaxed. Everyone walked away from him. He had a small smile on his face, even though the "group" was being a little unkind. I smiled back at him, and held up my hand.

"What's that?" he asked sarcastically.

"A high-five." I said with a laugh.

" A what?" he asked.

"Hold up your hand." I said, he did and he held it stiffly and close to his body like a formal greeting. I shook my head, and then slapped my hand to his making a clapping sound.

"It's a form of congratulations. To kind of celebrate your acceptance." I said.

"Oh." He looked surprised, then looked down at his hand.

A little while later as the sun slowly set Sokka, Aang and I walked him to his room. I waited outside with Aang, while Sokka let him in. When Sokka came back out, he sated, "This is weird…really weird."

"Why is it weird?" I asked…then realized my mistake. "Never mind, you're probably going to say something like, 'because he's been our enemy for so long.'" I said trying to imitate Sokka's voice.

"Well it's true." Said Sokka.

Once everyone was sleeping I snuck to Zuko's room. We were the two "newbies" in this small group of people. So it felt like we shared a small bond. I quietly knocked on the door hoping he was still awake.

The door opened and Zuko's eyes widened when he saw me standing there. "Oh…hello." He said almost shyly.

"Are you ok?" I asked instantly, this wasn't the same person I'd seen a second ago.

"Yea, um…would you like to come in?" he asked. I nodded and walked through the open door, he closed it after me.

"So you made it into the group. I told you it would all work out." I turned and smiled at him, then walked over to the edge of the room where you could see the mountains.

"Yea, I just hope that the Avatar doesn't think I'm going to go easy on him just cause I've changed." He said stubbornly.

"What in training? I don't think you should. He needs to learn how to be a firebender…but not the whole cruelty part." I said then turned around to face him. I saw regret flash across his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked again, I seemed to worry about him more than I should.

"Not all of the fire citizens are cruel." He said and looked at me, " I hope to regain the honor of my people and my Nation once I become Fire Lord."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." I looked away from him.

"Would you like to sit down?" he asked offering me his bed.

"Sure, where will you sit?" I asked looking around. There weren't any chairs.

" The floor is fine." He said and sat crossed legged on the smooth floor.

"I'll sit with you." I sat across from him. For a few seconds there was a quite pause, neither of us knowing what to say.

"How long have you been alone?" he asked curiously. I looked up and met his molten gold eyes.

"About six years." I stated, the butterflies had returned to my stomach.

"How did you not go crazy?"

"I just kept telling myself that my parents wouldn't want me to give up."

"Why didn't you just leave?"

"I had no idea where I was, plus I don't have any maps or anything. I'd have died out there."

"So you planned on just staying here?" he sounded like he was a little offended at my actions.

"No, I hoped that I'd be found, and look I was right to hope." I smiled at him, and he looked confused. "You knew I was teasing about what I said early right?"

"When?"

"When I said that you looked nervous."

"Oh, I thought you were just stating the obvious. How can you read people so well if you've been alone for so long?"

"I was trying to lighten the situation, or try to show them that you aren't as scary as they think you are. I don't know how I can read people. Maybe because I've been alone emotions are easy to detect or something." I shrugged my shoulders, and looked closer at him. Something was bothering him though.

"Hmm…maybe."

"So tell me what has you truly upset."

"How do you do that?" he as agitated now.

"It's in the set of your shoulders. When you're tense they like bunch together." I said trying to explain.

"You don't even know me." he glared at me.

"Anyway just tell me what's wrong."

For a second all I got was a cold golden glare, and then he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Katara came in here shortly after you three brought me to my room. She said that I have everyone fooled with my transformation. She doesn't believe that I truly have changed. She said that if I make any move to hurt Aang then she'll basically execute me on the spot." He looked up at me, and the damn butterflies were back. They had to stop they were annoying.

"Well maybe it's just harder for her to accept. She seems to be a person who's driven by her emotions, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It'll just take her longer to accept you." I shrugged my shoulders.

"You're probably right." He said and looked at me. I looked up away from his gaze, and a small picture caught my attention.

"Whose that?" I asked. He looked in the direction of my gaze.

"That's my Uncle. He's one of the most amazing people you'll ever meet." He put more emotion into this sentence than I'd ever heard come out of his mouth. It really was weird that I could read him so well having just met him.

"Hmm, I hope I'll meet him some day. Do you believe in reincarnation?" I asked randomly.

He looked at me puzzled, "Why?"

"I don't know, just a question." I said, I felt my cheeks burn and tried to hide it. I looked down at the small rug that was underneath my folded legs. I was thinking that maybe I'd known him in a past life, and that's how I could read him so well…but I didn't want to admit that to him.

"I guess so, I don't see why not." I looked up at him, our eyes connecting, and for one brief moment I felt recognition. Like I'd known him for a long time.

"Well it's getting late I better get going." I said and stood up. My legs were stiff and tingly. I tried to walk and almost fell but Zuko caught me. I blushed, "Sorry my legs were asleep." I looked away from his face; I could feel his warm hand on my arm. It was still weird being touched by other people. The sensations seemed more acute.

"I guess I'll see you in the morning." Said Zuko quietly from behind me. With that I walked down the hall towards my own room. I missed the way Zuko looked at his hand puzzled.


	2. Heated Romance Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 -The Firebending Masters: **

The next day was Zuko's first training session with Aang. I was curious to see how he did firebending, and wondered if it was at all similar to water bending. So when he and Aang snuck off to go practice on a secluded rooftop, I followed. It was probably wrong for me to snoop, but hey I was curious, so I listened in on the conversation.

"I know you're nervous, but remember fire in and of itself isn't something to fear." Said Zuko all teacher like.

" Not to fear…" comes Aang's quieter voice.

"But if you don't respect it, it'll chew you up and spit you back out like an angry kimodorhino!" Zuko practically shouted this at Aang and I almost blew my cover by laughing.

"Now, show me what firebending you can do." Zuko said calmly. He had the weirdest mood swings….

I didn't see what Aang did, but I heard his mumbled comment, "Maybe I need a little more instruction. Perhaps a demonstration?"

"Good idea, you might want to step back a little." Came Zuko's voice, it almost sounded arrogant, but not quite.

"What was that?" his voice came questioningly over the rooftop. "That was the worst firebending I've ever seen!" he yelled. Sounds of angry frustration drifted my way, "Why is this happening to me?" he barked at poor Aang.

"Maybe it's the altitude?" Aang suggested questioningly.

"Yea…could be." was Zuko's shady response. So they moved to a different location, but I didn't follow this time. Katara spotted me and waved me over.

"Hey Katara what's up?" I asked as I walked over to her.

"I was about to start breakfast and was wondering if you'd help me?" she asked. I smiled and nodded my head.

"Sure."

So we walked over to the main fountain, and started heating up some rice. Then added a few berries that someone had found in the forest the previous day. All in all it looked like a pretty good meal. Soon everyone came and sat down with a bowl in their hand and started eating.

I noticed that Zuko didn't though and it worried me. This was how the group seemed to function, they'd eat together and talk at every meal. He just stood there leaning against the wall looking like something terrible was on his mind.

Slowly he approached, "Listen everybody, I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff." He sighed and hung his head. I looked at him with a dark brow raised and a confused look in my eyes.

"Don't look at me! I didn't touch your stuff." Said Toph, her hands held in the air.

"I'm talking about my firebending." Said a forlorn Zuko. My mouth fell slightly open, how does someone just loose his or her "Stuff" as he so nicely put it.

Then Katara started to laugh, and it was a cruel harsh laughter that made me glare at her. Here Zuko was admitting something very personal and she laughed at him!

"I'm sorry I'm just laughing at the irony. You know how it would've been nice if you'd lost your firebending a long time ago." She said with a little wave of her hand. I clenched my teeth together.

"Well it's not lost it's just weaker for some reason." Said Zuko sadly.

"Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are." Katara said snobbishly.

"Ouch." Said Toph.

"That was rude!" I said angrily as I glared daggers at her.

"I bet it's because I changed sides." Said Zuko, regaining some of his normal aloofness.

"That's ridiculous." Said Katara.

"I don't know, maybe it isn't. Maybe your firebending comes from rage, and you don't have enough anger to fuel it anymore." Said Aang.

"So all we need to do is make Zuko angry, that's easy enough." Said Sokka. He then started to poke Zuko with his sword hilt. First in his ribs and then on the head, and then Zuko finally snapped.

" Ok cut it out!" he shouted. "Look even if you're right I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore." He pinched the bridge of his nose, I habit I noticed he did quite often when he was frustrated, or trying to control his temper. "There has to be another way." He said stubbornly.

"You're going to have to learn to draw your firebending from a different source. I recommend the original source." Said Toph.

"How's he supposed to do that, by jumping into a volcano?" said Sokka, he was trying to be funny.

"No, Zuko needs to go back to whatever the original source of firebending is." Said Toph.

"So is it jumping into a volcano?" asked Sokka again.

"I don't know. For earthbending the original benders were badgermoles. From them I learned how to use my bending not just as a martial art but also as an extension of my senses. For them, the original earthbenders it wasn't just about fighting, it was their way of interacting with the world. " Said Toph.

" That's amazing Toph, I learned mostly from the monks, but the original benders were the flying bison." Said Aang.

"Well that doesn't help me, the original firebenders were the dragons and they're extinct." Said Zuko.

"What do you mean? Roku had a dragon and there were plenty of dragons when I was a kid." Said Aang.

"Well they aren't around anymore ok!" Zuko semi yelled, his temper showing through again.

"Ok, ok, sorry." Said Aang, he put his hands up and acted as if he was soothing a scared animal.

"But maybe there's another way. The first people to learn from the dragons were the ancient Sun Warriors." Said Zuko, then he moved away from everyone and stood looking out at the fountain.

"Sun Warriors? Well I know they weren't around when I was a kid." Said Aang as he went and stood near Zuko.

"No, they died out thousands of years ago, but their civilization wasn't to far from where we are now. Maybe we could learn something by poking around their ruins."

"It's like the monks used to tell me, sometimes the shadows of the past can be felt by the present."

"So what, maybe you'll pick up some super old Sun Warrior energy just by standing where they stood a thousand years ago?" asked Sokka.

"More or less. Either I find a new way to firebend, or the Avatar finds a new teacher." Was Zuko's reply.

"Well lets hope that you can learn something from the civilization then." I said. This was still all new to me, having people around, and for the most part I stayed quiet.

"I was thinking we could leave now?" asked Zuko, it was only around 11 in the morning so they did have plenty of time. It wasn't like we were going to do anything interesting while they were gone.

"That's probably a good idea." Said Aang, he then turned to Appa, "You ready for a trip buddy?" Appa's answer was a loud roar.

Once they finished there late breakfast Aang and Zuko got on Appa and left. I dearly wanted to ride the flying bison, but I didn't think now was the best time to ask. Everyone waved as Appa took off into the air.

"I hope they learn something." Said Katara.

"They probably will, I feel bad for Zuko though. That must have terrified him, when he couldn't firebend." I said and watched as Appa gained in altitude.

"I'd be lost without my bending." Said Toph from next to me.

"Same here, I've always just known it was there. I'd feel hollow without it." I looked at my fingers and got a brilliant idea.

"Katara, you got to stay with the water tribe. Did anyone teach you waterbending?" My Dad taught my basic stuff, but I doubt it'd be any help in a real fight.

"No, but I went to the Northern Water Tribe and got to study with a master. You seemed to know what you were doing yesterday." She looked at me curiously.

"I was following your actions. Do you think that you could teach me?"

"Absolutely!" she said and gave me a hug. I gingerly hugged her back. After being alone I felt a little rusty at human affection.

"I'll watch." Said Toph excitedly.

"Ok so how much do you know?"

"Just the basics, and then yesterday I just imitated you. I don't really know how to do that." I said and blushed. " I do practice everyday though, well I did until everyone showed up here yesterday."

"That's ok. So we'll go through the basic moves and move on to harder bending."

"Sounds good to me." I said and smiled at her.

As we stood around the fountain she had me do really basic maneuvers, the first of which I'd mastered at the age of three. The maneuver was pulling a wave towards you and pushing it away from you. Once I got into the swing of things my motions became smooth and fluid, they were natural and I felt myself relaxing into the rhythmic sensations. That's when we started some of the stronger bending. I'd just imitate what she did and some how I managed to get the right result on the first try. I shocked my teacher and myself.

"Now this is fun to do." Said Katara. She did a series of moves, and then water shot up and over her head and froze. I watched as she blew air out her nose while inside the mini glacier, and then she started moving around. When she needed to breath again she just dropped the ice and the water fell around her in a puddle.

"That looked awesome!" I said. I tried and succeeded in doing the same motions. When the water froze above me I slowly released air out of my nose. The water around me unfroze and I was swimming inside my own mini glacier. When I needed another breath of air I unfroze the water. It fell around me and made a huge splash. I started laughing, Toph and Katara joined in.

"Isn't it fun?" asked Katara.

"Yes! It's the best feeling ever!" I said and laughed more then grinned.

"I do have bad news though, and I think you should understand. Waterbending does have a dark side to it, it shouldn't but he does. An old woman once showed me what she called blood bending." All humor left Katara's face as she said this and the idea sickened me.

"It's the worst feeling ever. You're brain functions but you aren't in control of your own body." She looked down.

"I understand Katara, for such a young girl to have gone through that…" I said and felt bad for her. It was probably worse than if she lost her bending abilities.

"That's not even the worst part, the worst thing is that it's not hard to figure out how to do." I looked at her and saw her eyes were brimmed with tears. I walked over to her and wrapped her in my arms, like an older sister.

"It's ok Katara, it's in the past. Besides look at what that experience taught you. You now know that everything has a dangerous side to it, even the things that seem the most innocent." That probably made no sense, but in my head it sounded right.

"True." She said and then wiped her eyes. She was only two years younger than me, so that made her 14, and she'd already been through more dangers than an adult.

"Guys, we kind of missed lunch, it's around 2:00 in the afternoon. I'm starving." Said Toph.

"We should probably go back and make lunch." Said Katara, she got the rice pot out and heated some water to cook.

"Where do you think the other three boys are?" I asked, I'd been introduced to them but couldn't remember their names. They weren't around that much.

"Probably off exploring some rooms or something." Said Toph as she ate a bite of rice.

The three of us sat quietly eating for a few minutes, until I finally struck up enough courage to ask Katara why she truly didn't like Zuko.

"Hey Katara, why don't you like Zuko, and don't say because of all the things he's done to you. You seem to distrust him more than anyone else, even your brother has accepted him." I watched her body language thinking that maybe I could glean more information from her that way.

She sighed, and I saw her struggle with something, " I think it's because of my mother." Said Katara.

"What happened to her?" I asked.

"The day the Fire Nation invaded our village they went straight for my mother. I got scared so I ran to find her, she was in our small home and a Fire Nation general was in there asking her questions. When I walked in the man yelled at me, but my mother calmly told me to go find my father so I did. I never saw her again." She said and looked down at her bowl of rice.

"I'm sorry, I wish my family had stayed with our tribe, then I wouldn't have missed so much."

" I think I've turned all of my anger about that day on Zuko. I just don't know how to change those feelings." She said softly.

"That's something you'll have to figure out Katara." I reached out and squeezed her hand, trying to comfort her. The showing of affection and comfort was starting to come easier the longer I was with people.

"I know, I keep thinking that his change is a trick though. Hopefully I'll be wrong." Katara said sadly.

Sokka came back from either hunting or exploring. "What did you three do all day?" he asked as he sat down and grabbed a bowl of rice.

"Katara taught me some waterbending moves and they are awesome!" I said excitedly.

After that we spent the rest of the day walking around the air temple. I showed them my favorite spots, including the hall of statues. It was all the Avatars of old, lined up in order of their births.

"This is my favorite thing about the whole temple." I stated with a smile on my face.

"It's impressive. They have one at the Northern Air Temple just like it." Sokka.

"Was it like this one?" asked Toph.

"Yea, but different too." Said Katara.

We stayed there for a long time, looking at all the old avatars. By the time we headed back it was already dark outside.

"I wonder how Aang and Zuko are." Katara wondered out loud.

"Probably having some major adventure that we missed out on." said Sokka sullenly.

"I wonder when they'll be back?" I asked and looked up at the star strewn sky.

"Who knows?" said Toph with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Ok can we have food now?" asked Sokka.

"Yea come on." said Katara, we all headed back towards the fountain.

We ate the left over rice from lunch; all we did was heat it up again over a new fire. After that we sat around talking. Katara, Toph, and Sokka telling me funny storied about the adventures they'd been on.

"The funniest was when Sokka drank cactus juice." Said Katara with a laugh.

" It had to be the funniest thing I'd ever heard." Said Toph.

"I was thirsty ok." Said Sokka as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"What happened?" I asked grinning.

"Well we had to cross this desert and we met this Professor guy. He was so excited by Appa that we offered to go on a mini adventure." Said Sokka.

"He was looking for some library that had been hidden for centuries." Said Toph.

"We found it of course, but weren't expecting a large Spirit Owl to own the place. So we tricked him into letting us look at his stuff." Said Katara.

"We found this solarium that could predict things in the stars. That's how we found out about the solar eclipse." Said Sokka he sounded forlorn.

"The Owl realized though that we'd tricked him, so he started destroying the whole library." Said Katara.

" I was up above being attacked by sandbenders, and trying to keep the library from sinking. Unfortunately the sandbenders took Appa." Said Toph.

"That's how we got stuck walking through the desert in the first place." Said Sokka, "it was so hot that I drank the first thing I saw."

"So of course Sokka and Momo drank the juice." Said Toph with a laugh.

" They were practically high! They were doing all these weird things, and Sokka acted like he was drunk." Katara said while laughing, then we all started laughing.

Soon after that we all decided to go to bed, realizing that Aang and Zuko weren't going to be back.

They arrived early the next morning, both excited to share the new information that they'd learned.

"With this technique the dragons showed us Zuko and I will be unstoppable." Said Aang as he and Zuko gave everyone a demonstration. It was a sight to behold, they moved with a strength and aggression that was graceful and smooth. I watched, amazed at the control they held over their bodies.

Once they were finished we all clapped, "Yea that's a great dance you two learned." Said Sokka.

"It's not a dance, it's a firebending form." Zuko said defensively.

"We'll just tap dance our way to victory over the Fire Lord." Said Sokka as he made walking legs with his fingers.

"It's a sacred form that happens to be thousands of years old." Zuko said as he angrily stalked towards a sitting Sokka.

"Oh yea, what's your little form called?" Katara asked tauntingly.

Zuko looked away, and quietly said, " The Dancing Dragon."

This caused everyone to laugh, but in a way it was a dance…but one that was rather dangerous because those who danced could shoot fire from their fingers. I looked up in time to see Zuko grimace, almost like he was going to smile or join in our laughter.


	3. Heated Romance Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - The Boiling Rock:**

That night we all sat around the fire and Zuko even made us tea.

"No one can make tea like Uncle," Zuko said as he poured everyone a small cup of hot tea. "But hopefully I learned a thing or two."

"Would you like to hear Uncle's favorite tea joke?" he asked, his face lit up with a semblance of happiness. We all nodded our heads and some of the other kids said yes.

"Well, all I remember is the punch line," he said as he kneeled down between The Duke and Haru. He handed them each a cup then leaned back on his heels and delivered the punch line.

"It's 'Leaf me alone, I'm bushed."

Everyone stared at him silently. I quietly laughed at the face that Haru made, he seemed a little confused. Poor Zuko seemed to by trying hard to be himself. "It's funnier when Uncle tells it," he said and looked a little crest fallen.

"When your Uncle tells it, it's probably better because he remembers the whole thing," Katara said.

This caused her and Aang to laugh. I caught Zuko's eye and gave him a smile, I could tell that he was trying. I couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for him to leave his life behind, and attempt to befriend people he'd been chasing all over the world.

He gave me a small smile in return and then continued to pass out cups of tea. When he got to me he was about to sit down, but Sokka asked to talk to him. Zuko set the tea tray down and followed Sokka away from the group towards the edge of the foyer.

I sipped my tea and tried to listen in on their conversation. I heard them mention something about a prison called the Boiling Rock. Sokka kept asking questions. I tried to see them without looking suspicious, but gave up and ignored them instead. I was going to stay awake instead and see for myself what was going on.

I took another sip of tea and looked back at Zuko. "This is really good tea."

I was a little shocked; I didn't think he'd make good tea. Of course I hadn't had tea in a very long time.

When people started getting tired they brought out their bedrolls and placed them around the fire. I acted like I'd fallen asleep, and waited for Sokka to make his move. Around midnight he finally did.

He quietly got up from his roll and stealthily walked towards Appa. When he was far enough away I got out of my own roll and followed him. I hid on the opposite side of Appa, not wanting him to see me. That's when I heard Zuko's voice, they were whispering and I vaguely heard Zuko say, "I'm never happy." That was all I managed to hear so I moved a little closer.

"We'll take my war balloon," Zuko said. Then they headed towards the hidden war balloon. Since I knew the temple like the back of my hand I got there ahead of them. All I'd needed to know was the direction in which the balloon was hidden.

I found it easily, and jumped into it. I'd never seen one before but noticed that one side had a small bench, and the other had a small opening behind a strange metal contraption. I hid behind the metal thing in the middle. I had no idea what it was called. I heard them coming and tried to become smaller in my little hiding place.

I wasn't able to watch, but I heard Zuko use his firebending to heat something inside the metal contraption. To my amazement we lifted off the ground, it was the weirdest sensation, and I loved it. Sokka sat on the small bench that was fit on the opposite side of the balloon. I waited for a while, zoning in and out of reality. A few times I even fell asleep.

"I did have a girlfriend, Mai." I heard Zuko say as I woke up at one point. Something inside me cringed.

"The gloomy one who sighs a lot?" asked Sokka.

"Yea," Zuko said wistfully.

I chose that moment to surprise the boys. My body was starting to cramp up and I needed to stretch, at least that's what I told myself. I think a deeper part of me wanted to run from whatever emotions I was feeling.

I stood up and said, "Hello." I looked at the boys and smiled. Their eyes widened and their mouths fell open slightly, which made me laugh.

"How?" asked Zuko.

"What…when?" came Sokka's confused voice.

"It was easy," I said as I waved a hand in the air. "I just snuck on before either of you, it wasn't hard to find the warship. I've been dozing on and off since we left the temple."

" I'm stiff now though, so I think I'm going to stand for a bit," I stated then moved towards the bow of the war balloon, I looked down on everything. "This is amazing!" I exclaimed excitedly. The guys still hadn't said anything.

"Lin this could be dangerous," Sokka said.

"It's my first big adventure," I said as I looked at him over my shoulder. "I want to help." Zuko still hadn't said anything, but I wouldn't meet his gaze. There was a part of me still cringing from the knowledge that he had a girlfriend.

"Lin this isn't some grand old adventure," Zuko said. "If we get caught we might never escape."

"I know," I said as I looked at him for the first time. His eyes were narrowed. "But earlier you said 'Boiling Rock' and boiling has something to do with water, so I can help." I said earnestly.

"Absolutely not!" Zuko said angrily and glared at me.

"She has a point," Sokka said at the exact same time.

"Thank you Sokka," I smiled at my cousin.

"No!" Zuko said angrily, disagreeing with both Sokka and myself. "You can't waterbend on an island crawling with Fire Nation guards and prisoners."

"Well what would you have us do?" I asked as my own temper began to rise. "We're already closer to our destination, and if you go back everyone will want to help." I said smugly. I watched his golden eyes narrow into tiny slits of molten gold.

"We'll probably only have this one chance," Sokka stated. Zuko then aimed his glare at Sokka.

"Fine," Zuko stated. "So now what's the plan?"

"The same plan as before," I said and glared back at him. This wasn't impossible.

"It'll be harder to steal a uniform for a girl," Zuko said still flustered.

"Then disguise me as a prisoner," I retorted. "I'll blend in better as a prisoner anyway."

"Fine," Zuko said hotly. "But this is going to be impossible." He looked like he could spit fire…if he did that I was going to have to call him dragon.

He turned and looked out over the horizon. "There it is," he said. I looked down over the edge to where he pointed. "There's plenty of steam to give us cover. We should be able to navigate through it without being caught."

He turned around and moved over to the metal contraption in the middle. I took a chance to inspect the small circular island with lots of steam coming out of it. My hands turned a little clammy, I seriously hoped that we'd be able to get off this island. We entered the steam and seemed to disappear.

"We're going down!" Zuko said anxiously. "The balloon's not working anymore."

"What?" I asked anxiously and looked up at the balloon. I didn't see any holes or anything.

"The air outside is as hot as the air inside, so we can't fly." Sokka said as he looked around. I could hear the sound of bubbling water beneath us.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Zuko asked frantically, he was thrown against the side of the war balloon. I lost my balance and was pitched towards Zuko. He caught me around my waist and steadied me.

"I don't know," Sokka said looking at the both of us. "Crash landing?" he said and shrugged his shoulders.

"Well I think that's inevitable," I said as I watched the water come closer.

The war balloon slid into the water, making small waves that splashed up into the basket of the balloon. I bit my lip preparing myself for a sting, but it never came. Poor Sokka on the other hand covered his mouth when his hand got splashed. We hit solid ground with a thud. The three of us were thrown out of the balloon. Everything then fell around the ruined remains of the basket. The collision had broken it.

Sokka spit dirt out of his mouth and Zuko rubbed the back of his head.

"Well for a crash landing that wasn't so bad," I said, and rubbed my shoulder. I turned around and looked back at the balloon. There was no way we were going to be able to fly it out of here.

"How are we going to get off the island if the balloon won't work?" Zuko asked in a whisper. It was hard to see each other with so much steam.

"We'll figure something out," Sokka said. "I suspected it might be a one way ticket."

My eyebrows drew together and I gave Sokka a frustrated look, "What?" I asked and watched as he stood and walked towards the balloon, Zuko sat for a second watching too.

"You knew this would happen, and you wanted to come anyway?" Zuko asked in disbelief. He was watching Sokka with a look that questioned Sokka's sanity.

"My Dad might be here," he said. "I had to come and see." He started folding the balloon up and laying it on top of itself.

"Uncle always said I never thought things through, but this? This is just crazy!" Zuko said as he stood up and started using his hands to talk. It was rather funny to watch.

"I've got to agree with Zuko," I said as I folded my arms across my chest. "Sokka this is almost a fool's errand." I looked down at my crossed arms and realized how out of place I looked in my Water Tribe cloths. My hair was coming out of the braid too, due to the humidity in the air.

"I never wanted either of you to come along in the first place," Sokka said as he continued to fiddle around with the balloon. "And you, you were a surprise to both of us." Sokka argued, although he said this last part looking directly at me.

"Oh and for the record," he said turning back to Zuko. "I always think things through, but lately my plans haven't exactly worked, so this time I'm playing it by ear." Sokka retorted stubbornly, then he continued stuffing the balloon.

I watched as he put his hands on the rim of the basket and burned his fingers.

"Sokka what are you doing?" I asked bewildered, then was shocked. Instead of pushing with his hands he used his booted foot to kick the broken war balloon into the boiling water.

"What are you doing?" Zuko asked as he ran to the sinking balloon.

"It doesn't work anyway, and we don't want anyone to find it." Sokka said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Zuko said with a shake of his head. "There's no turning back now." He looked at the stone walls of the prison.

"Well," I said with a sigh. "Let's go find the uniforms before someone spots us standing here like numbskulls." I said and looked at the foreboding prison myself.

"Good idea,." Zuko agreed.

We found the room where the uniforms were kept, but I didn't see any type of prison uniform.

"Lin just grab a guard uniform," Sokka said as he walked out of the room. "There are some female ones located in the back."

"Are you sure?" I asked quietly not wanting to alert Zuko as he kept watch. "I don't want to be the only female guard."

"Just wear the uniform alright, it'll be faster," Sokka said as he looked behind him.

I opened the door and I walked in. I found the uniforms Sokka wanted me to wear. I grabbed everything I needed and changed in the small space. Everything outside must have gone over well because I wasn't interrupted. I came out and Zuko's stance changed, he looked angry at me.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he growled out.

"There were no other uniforms and Sokka said to just change into one of these, so stop your growling," I snapped at him. "Besides, it's not like you two have any idea what you're doing." When I got no response I smiled.

"We just need to lie low and find my Dad as soon as possible," Sokka said. "So you two have to stop arguing."

I blushed, "Sorry Sokka."

I didn't want to ruin the mission we'd come on by arguing. I looked at Zuko and he was the one smiling now, I stuck my tongue out at him.

A whole troop ran past the hallway we were standing in. At first no one saw us, but then a soldier broke rank and called out, "Guards come quickly, there's a scuffle in the yard." Then the man ran back into line with the other troops.

We ran and followed them. When we got outside into the yard there was a guard picking on a prisoner. The prisoner said he'd done nothing wrong. The guard then advanced towards us asking, "Isn't that cute, he doesn't know what he did."

When neither Zuko nor Sokka answered he flipped his visor up and glared at the both of them.

"Ah…very cute sir," Zuko said in a clipped response.

"Super cute sir," Sokka said. I smirked and crossed my arms over my chest.

"You didn't bow when I walked by Chitsang," the guard said angrily.

"What? That's not a prison rule," the prisoner said. He was a large man and towered over the guard. I figured the guard was doing this to show the other guards and the prisoners that he was in control. The guard just got into Chitsang's face and ordered, "Do it."

"Make me," Chitsang replied. He had to be a least 6'4", with broad shoulders and extremely powerful limbs. The guard smiled and walked away, when he was in front of Sokka, Zuko, and I he turned and shot fire out of his hand towards the prisoner. The prisoner acted instinctively. He caught the fire then bended it back towards the guard.

The guard shook his head and tisked, "Firebending is prohibited. You're going in the cooler." The guard sounded smug with himself. "You," he said and pointed at Sokka. "Help me take him in."

"Meet back here in an hour," Sokka said as he ran after the guard and prisoner. Zuko and I watched him leave. I stepped closer to Zuko. I hadn't been around firebenders in a long time, and it made me a tad nervous.

"Now what," I whispered into his ear. He turned and looked down at me, I hadn't realized how tall he was. I was 5'7", so he had to be at least 6'2".

"We go to the lounge," he said. "They'll know if there are any war prisoners being held here." I felt his breath in my face and we just stared at each other for what seemed like forever.

Once we found the lounge we each grabbed a plate of food. It'd been a while since we'd had a real meal. Living off of rice was tedious at best.

"Hey new guy," an older more seasoned guard called out from a nearby table. "I know it's the rule to have your helmet on at all times but, this is the lounge so relax." There were two other companions sitting with him, one was a woman.

"What if there's an incident, I could get struck on the head," Zuko said naively, as if he truly was a new guard. I took my tray and headed towards a secluded corner. I wanted to be inconspicuous. I sat facing the wall and took my helmet off, then set it down next to me. I could still hear Zuko's conversation.

"Can the new guy ask you veterans a question?" he asked as he moved towards the table.

"No, you can't date the female guards," the female guard said.

"Trust me," the first guard said. "You don't want to."

"No, that's not my question," Zuko said. I heard his tray as he placed it on the table. "The Boiling Rock, it holds the Fire Nations most dangerous criminals right? What about war prisoners?" He sounded aloof and a tad vengeful, like he wanted revenge on a certain prisoner.

"Occasionally we'll get a few, but only leaders of rebel cells," the female said.

"Are there any here now?"

"No, why such an interest?" asked a second masculine voice.

"My family, during the day of Black Sun…I lost my father. I was hoping to find the rebel who killed him."

I almost believed him myself, if I'd not known he was the traitor prince I certainly would have. He was a really good actor, and a little smidge in the back of my mind worried for a moment.

"I'm sorry boy," the first guard said. "Unfortunately we don't have any war prisoners at the moment."

"Thanks," Zuko said. "I'm going to go sit with my friend, tell her the news. She wants revenge too."

I heard a chair move back and footsteps coming towards me. He sat down across from me so that his back was to the wall.

"He's going to be so disappointed," I whispered.

"I know, and now we can't get off this island either. We have no balloon," Zuko said and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Don't be mad at him," I whispered. "He just wants to help his Dad."

"I'm not mad," he said and looked up at me like I'd offended him.

"Oh," I said and blushed. "Well when you're frustrated you tend to pinch the bridge of your nose."

He sighed, "I'm just wondering how we're going to get off this island."

"I was thinking about that," I said and pushed my food around my plate. "I actually might be helpful, I could part the water and then close it behind us, so then the guards wouldn't be able to follow. The only problem is that the water is heated by the rocks underneath it, so that means the rocks are even hotter than the water," I looked up into his face.

"I realized that already," he whispered back. "We should have brought you back." He said solemnly.

"I wanted to come," I angrily whispered. "You couldn't have changed that." He just shook his head, like I was a child or something.

"If you're done eating we should go find Sokka," I said and stood up. I didn't wait for him. I brought my tray over to the trashcan, dumped the plates and then set the tray on top. I left the lounge, and could sense Zuko following me.

We headed back to the yard, this time Zuko led and I followed him. The prisoners were out, and a lone guard stood on the balcony overlooking the yard.

"Hey there fellow guard how goes it?" Zuko asked, he stood next to the guard and I stood next to him. I figured Sokka would recognize his voice better than mine.

"Zuko?" asked Sokka rather loudly.

"Shh," Zuko said as he covered his mouth with his finger. It made me smile, it was such an innocent gesture. "Listen, I asked around the lounge. There are no war prisoners here," he said. "I'm afraid your father's not here," Zuko said as he flipped up his visor. I hated the stupid things it was hard to see out of them.

"What? Are you sure, did you double check?" Sokka asked. He looked so hurt.

"I'm sure," Zuko said.

"I'm really sorry Sokka," I said and took a step towards him, but he moved towards the wall.

"No!" he said angrily and pounded his fists against the metal prison.

"I'm really sorry Sokka," Zuko said seriously.

"So we came all this way for nothing?" Sokka asked angrily as he leaned up against the metal walls and hung his head. "I failed, again."

"What would Uncle say?" asked Zuko, he rubbed the bottom of his chin with his thumb and forefinger. Then turned to face the yard but looked up at the clouds instead.

"Sokka, you didn't fail," I said as I looked at him. "We can fix this," I said trying to sound hopeful.

"Sometimes clouds have two sides," Zuko said as he turned back to face us. "A dark and a light, and then a silver lining in between," he said as he pointed towards the sky. "

"It's like a silver sandwich. So…when life sounds hard, take a bite out of the silver sandwich," Zuko said. He sounded a tad ridiculous. He was obviously trying to say that every bad situation has some good aspect to it. I just laughed under my breath, because he almost made sense but not quite.

"Maybe we haven't failed after all!" said Sokka as he stood up and smiled. I turned and looked at him and was surprised to see he was staring out over the railing.

"That's the spirit," Zuko said with a smile. He turned to me and whispered, "I can't believe that worked, I didn't even know what I was saying," Zuko said stunned.

"Sorry to burst your bubble Zuko, but it didn't make sense," I said and gave him a pat on the back. "It almost did, but not quite," I said and gave a half laugh.

"No, Lin's right," Sokka said as he turned to face Zuko and me. "What you said made no sense at all. But look," Sokka said excitedly. "It's Suki!" he said as he almost fell over the railing.

He pointed at a girl who was sitting all alone in the yard. She had a short bob and a small portion of hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her light brown hair looked out of place with all the black hair.

The bell sounded and a guard called out for all prisoners to return to their cells. Sokka ran after the girl, Zuko and I walked slowly after him.

"What's with him?" I asked. He was acting strange…at least I thought he was acting strange. As we walked I had the oddest impulse to slip my hand into Zuko's. I stopped without realizing it, and just stood there for a second. Why would I think that about Zuko? I'd just met him, and he had a girlfriend.

"Lin?" Zuko asked as he stopped and looked at me.

"Sorry, I just dazed out for a minute. What did you say?"

"That I think Sokka likes that girl."

"Oh, that makes sense," I said and we continued on our way.

We found Sokka waiting outside of a cell. He was practically hopping from foot to foot in anticipation.

"You guys take forever," he said when he spotted us.

"Sorry, Zuko and I will stay outside and guard," I said and went and stood by the door handle.

"Perfect, I'll only be a second," He said and disappeared inside the cell.

"What do you think they'll talk about?" I asked curiously and looked over my shoulder at the closed door.

"They probably won't talk…" Zuko said with a smirk.

"What else would they do?" I asked and looked up at Zuko with furrowed brows. I flipped my visor up to see him better, I could only see part of his face.

"You don't get it?" He asked dumbfounded.

"Get what?" I asked. Zuko saw the guard first so he knocked on the door.

"I need to get into that cell," the real guard said. She sounded like the one from the lounge earlier.

"No," Zuko said as he faced the guard. "You can't go in there…the lights are out, the prisoner could sneak up on you," Zuko lied, but this time his voice wasn't as controlled as normal. The stutter sort of gave it away too, and I think the guard realized he was lying.

"Step aside fool," she said and reached to move Zuko aside. Instead he grabbed her arm and threw her done on the ground. I wasn't sure what to do, I made a move to help Zuko but Sokka came out and moved towards the shadows and dragged me with him.

"Guards help!" the other guard yelled from her position on the ground. "I think he's an imposter. Arrest him!"

Sokka stopped, and walked towards the guard and Zuko. He pulled Zuko off the guard, threw him up against the wall and said loudly, "You're under arrest."

I watched with wide eyes not understanding what was going on. How could Sokka betray Zuko? He must have a plan.

"Sokka, what were you thinking?" I asked as we walked back towards Suki's cell. "How are we going to get him out now?"

"I don't know," he said and looked at me. "How else were we supposed to get rid of that guard?"

"We could have knocked her out or something," I said and shrugged my shoulders.

"Suki it's us," Sokka whispered, and then opened the door. We both walked in.

"Who's she?" Suki asked defensively.

"I'm his cousin," I said as I took off my helmet.

"Oh," Suki said surprised. "I'm Suki, leader of the Kyoshi Warriors." She stuck her hand out and I shook it.

"Nice to meet you," I said and smiled.

"It's my turn to mop today, so I have to get downstairs," Suki said.

"That's perfect, grab an extra mop and I'll go get Zuko," I said as we all stood. "We can start to make an escape plan."

"That's a great idea," Sokka said. "Come on Suki."

"Wait, Zuko?" asked Suki, her eyebrows drawing together, "Isn't he the one who was always chasing you?"

"Yea, but he's on our side now," Sokka said. He opened the door and peeked out. "Ok no guards coming." So we left the cell, Sokka on one side of Suki and I on the other.

"I'll go get Zuko and meet you in the main hall," I said as I turned down the hall that would lead to Zuko. "Make sure to grab an extra mop," I said over my shoulder.

"You're turn to mop," I said, trying to make my voice sound gruffer as I opened the door to Zuko's cell.

"Lin?"

"How'd you know it was me?" I asked as I closed the door and walked farther in.

"Easy," he said as he got up off his bed and walked towards me. "You're making your voice to obvious."

"Oh well, come on," I said as I reached for his hand then flipped up my visor instead. I felt my cheeks blush, I was glad the cell was dim. "We've got to go mop…well you've got to mop." I said and smirked at him

"Why are you smirking?"

"I can't picture you mopping a floor."

"I've done it before."

"You have?" I asked totally bewildered.

"Yea," he said as he stepped closer to me. I felt my stomach tighten and my hands turn slightly moist. "My Uncle ran a tea shop in the Earth Kingdom, I helped him run it."

"Oh, well I'm sorry for assuming then," I said and turned around. "Let's go," I said and walked out of the cell, I missed Zuko's smile.

"I shocked you," he said.

I looked back over my shoulder, and his eyes were sparkling, but his face was as smooth as ever.

"So," I said with spunk. "Sometimes people do shock me. I'm not a person expert or something." I walked faster, and missed him smile even broader.

We reached Suki but saw no Sokka, "Suki, where's Sokka?" I whispered.

"He went to take a look around the perimeter, something about a plan he had. Here's a mop," She said and handed Zuko a mop rather gruffly. He took it graciously.

"Good you two know each other," Sokka said from behind me.

"We've met before," Suki snappishly said.

"We have?" asked Zuko, they both continued to mop.

"Yea, you kind of burned down my village."

"Oh, sorry about that," Zuko said sincerely. "Nice to see you again," he said hopefully. Sokka and I both palmed our foreheads; it must be a family trait.

When the coast was clear we all moved into the shadow of the staircase.

"So listen, I think I have an escape plan," Sokka said intently. "I checked out the coolers again, the whole point of them is to keep firebenders contained right?"

"Yeah…" I said.

"Right," Zuko said.

"So they're completely insulated and sealed to keep the cold in," he said sounding slightly excited. "Well to keep the cold in it also has to keep the heat out right?" If he kept this kept up we'd be here all day.

"Just get to the point Sokka," Suki and I said at the same time, we turned and smiled at each other.

"It's the perfect boat for getting through the boiling water," Sokka said and smiled at us all. Then we all looked at each other, just to make sure we heard Sokka right.

"The cooler as a boat, are you sure?" asked Zuko.

"I'm telling you, it'll work," Sokka said. "I walked around the perimeter, there's a blind spot between two guard towers."

"It's the perfect launching point, I already tested it out. We'll roll the cooler into the water and let the current take us, it'll bring us straight across. As long as we don't make a sound no one will notice."

"Plus I can manipulate…" I began but my shoulder was squeezed rather hard.

"Shh!" said Zuko as he interrupted me, and glared at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Not now," was his stern reply. I just rolled my eyes.

"How will you get the cooler out?" asked Suki.

"Yea how will you get the cooler out?" asked a deep baritone from above us on the stairs. It could only be the voice of Chitsang.

I turned to face the stairs, Zuko turned in a protective stance, and seemed to put himself between Chitsang and me. Or maybe I just thought it was a protective stance. Chitsang jumped down from the stairs and landed in our little circle.

"What…we didn't…we didn't say that," Sokka said. He was twitching and his pitches were all up and down. It was obvious he was lying.

"Yea, you heard wrong," Zuko said in his level tone.

"I heard you were hatching an escape plan, and I want in," was the deep statement.

"There's nothing to get in on," said Zuko, his voice was turning into one with more commanding force.

"Yea, the only thing we're hatching is…an egg?" Sokka said rather unconvincingly. Suki and Zuko sighed in exasperation. I started to laugh, which caused them to look at me, and then I stopped. I hated when people looked at me to long.

"Ok, well I come with you or the Warden hears about this egg too," Chitsang said. We all looked at each other.

"I guess we have no choice," said Suki. She sounded frustrated.

"Ok, you're in," said Sokka, and then he reached into his belt and pulled out a wrench. "First we need someone to unbolt the cooler." He offered the wrench to Zuko, who took it, and hid it behind his back.

"Oh, I can get you inside," said Chitsang.

Zuko went back to mopping, along with Suki. He accidentally hit Chitsang and they started pushing, shoving, and throwing each other around. Sokka cried for more reinforcements, which is where I came in. Zuko did some firebending and was sent to the coolers. I led him there myself, and winked as I closed the door. Then I went and met back up with Sokka.

"I hope this works," I said as we sat in Suki's cell.

"It should. Zuko…is well Zuko," Sokka said with a shrug. "Once he sets his mind on something he doesn't change it easily."

When it was time to go get Zuko, Sokka went by himself. I was to get Suki and Chitsang. From there we would meet down by the beach where we'd launch the boat. When we got there two other people were already waiting.

"That's my girl and my best buddy," Chitsang said as he made introductions. "They're coming too."

Suki and I just looked at each other and nodded. If worse came to worse I could waterbend. Although the idea set warning bells of in my head, plus I swore I heard Zuko shush me for even thinking about it.

We sat there for ages, and finally Zuko and Sokka showed up. We raced up the hill to help them roll the cooler down onto the beach. Once we were at the bottom Zuko and Sokka started talking about new prisoners coming tomorrow.

"You sure you want to go?" Zuko asked. "You said you wanted to redeem yourself, rescuing your Dad could be your only chance."

"Your Dad?" asked Suki and I together.

"That's starting to get freaky," I said and smiled.

"If I'd just cut my loses at the invasion, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess," Sokka said dejectedly. "Maybe sometimes it's just better to call it quits before you fail."

"No, it's not," Zuko said stubbornly. "Look Sokka, you're going to fail a lot before things work out," said Zuko, his hair and prisoners clothing blowing in a slight breeze.

"That's supposed to make me feel better?" asked Sokka annoyed.

"Even though you'll probably fail, over and over and over again," continued Zuko.

"Seriously not helping," Sokka bit out as he walked towards the shore.

I turned to Suki and whispered, "Do you think Zuko has a point?"

"I hope so, he's making Sokka feel horrible," she whispered back.

"You have to try every time!" Zuko said as he reached out and grabbed Sokka's shoulder. "You can't quit because you're afraid you might fail."

"Hey if you two are done cuddling can we get a move on?" asked Chitsang as he held the cooler on the beach that contained his girl and best bud.

"They were cuddling," I whispered to Suki, this caused the both of us to giggle. Of course we did it almost silently so that Sokka and Zuko wouldn't hear us.

"I know right, although Zuko gave a pretty good speech," Suki whispered back. I nodded my head.

"No, I'm staying," Sokka said, then turned to face Suki, Zuko and I. I was in between the two of them. "You guys go, you've been here long enough," Sokka said as he placed a hand on Suki's shoulder.

"I'm not leaving without you Sokka," said Suki as she reached up and placed her hand on his hand.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said with a smile. "He's my Uncle."

"I'm staying too," said Zuko.

"Not me, I'm out," said Chitsang. He pushed the cooler out into the water and jumped in.

"We gave up our only chance of escaping," Sokka said forlornly. "I hope we haven't just made a huge mistake."

"Nah, we'll figure it out," I said. "We could always try again and I can make a giant water spout that can shoot us up and over the wall."

"You're a waterbender?" asked Suki.

"No bending!" Zuko cut in angrily. "Lin if they catch you…I honestly don't know what they'll do to you."

I just rolled my eyes, I wanted to help and he wasn't going to let me.

"Yes I am," I said in answer to Suki's question. "Although these two don't want my help," I said without acknowledging Zuko's statement.

"I think it's a brilliant idea," Suki said with a smile. "Plus we'll only have one chance of escape. We need all the help we can get."

"Thank you, finally someone who realizes my potential," I said and smiled at her, she smiled back.

I turned to follow Sokka and Suki as they started back up the side of the prison. I looked behind me at Zuko and he was frowning and his eyes were narrowed. I turned back around, and it felt like he was burning a hole into my shoulder blades with the force of his glare.

"Ow!" reverberated off the natural walls created by the outside of the boiling lake. A short minute later a bell tolled signaling a prison break.

"The plan failed, they're caught," said Sokka. We continued moving forward, only at a faster pace.

"The gondolas moving," Sokka said.

We all looked up and watched as it slowly approached the landing dock in the prison. We stood, waiting to see if Sokka's Dad got off. "This is it; if my Dad's not there we risked everything for nothing."

"We had to," said Suki. She took Sokka's hand. I looked over my shoulder at Zuko and our eyes met.

"We'll make it," I whispered. "And I know you don't like it, but I'm going to help." He was the one in the most danger, even though he seemed to think I was. He only nodded his head, I wasn't sure if that was an affirmative that I could help, or just an acknowledgement of my statement.

Then the first prisoner stepped off the gondola. He was a huge muscular man. He had a nose piercing like the kind bulls have. "Is that him?" asked Zuko.

"My Dad doesn't have a nose ring," retorted Sokka. Other prisoners started filling out, but Sokka didn't say any were his Dad. "That's it? That can't be it," Sokka said hopelessly.

"I'm sorry Sokka," said Suki.

"No," said Sokka, he hung his head and looked miserable. He wouldn't look at any of us.

"Hey you get off the gondola," a guard gruffly shouted.

We looked up, all of us hoping the same thing. A man walked off the gondola, he had chin length brown hair, and I saw the glint of blue beads that were in his hair.

"That's my Dad," Sokka said elatedly.

"See it was worth it," I said and smiled.

"Lin should bring us to our cells," Zuko said. "You go and meet your father."

"Good idea," said Sokka. He hurried to go meet his father, or at least get a closer look. The rest of us headed back inside.

I snuck Suki to her cell first, it was easier to get to. Zuko and I walked back to his cell in silence. I pulled his door open and he walked inside, I followed him in.

"Why won't you let me use my bending?" I asked sadly. His back was to me, and I wished he'd turn around.

"It's dangerous," he said in his level voice. "It could also blow the whole mission."

"It could also be our way out," I said stubbornly.

"If you bend the Warden is going to want to keep you as a prize," Zuko said angrily as he turned back around to face me. "The Fire Nation would love to get their hands on a waterbender, he'd most likely torture you just because he can, is that what you want?" he shouted then pinched the bridge of his nose.." You'd be guarded twenty-four seven, and we'd have no way to break you out," Zuko said as his voice cracked ever so slightly.

"But Zuko, if it's a way to save everyone then I have to at least try," I said as I stepped closer to him.

"You would allow yourself to be captured for everyone else's sake?"

"Of course," I said. "Aang needs you and Sokka, even Suki, more than he needs me. The least I can do, if it's within my power, is get you back to him."

He placed his hands on either side of my arms and looked down at me. I couldn't break away from his gaze. There was a strange connection between the two of us in that moment, and I couldn't explain it to myself.

"You underestimate the importance your life has in others lives," he said solemnly.

"Everything is going to work out Zuko," I said and cupped the side of his face. "Just promise me you'll let me use my bending if I have the chance."

"What exactly were you thinking about doing?"

"If I have to I could make an ice boat from the water, and shoot us all over the volcanic side."

"There's more ground on the other side of the volcanic wall."

"So I could make another boat, then use the water to get us back." I wanted to help and he was being annoying.

"Just don't Lin," he said and pulled me against his chest. "We can't leave you behind, now get back outside incase a real guard walks by."

I was so confused by his actions, he was obviously trying to protect me, but I could take care of myself. I watched as he sat down on the matt on the floor that served as his bed. I glared at him, more out of confused anger than actual anger, and clenched my fists. I was going to help, it didn't matter what he said. I stormed out, slamming the cell door as I left. Then I went to meet Sokka up above.

I found Sokka coming down a set of stairs. "Sokka have you seen you're Dad?" I asked in a whisper.

"I'm on my way to his cell now," he said and grabbed my wrist. "Come on, he'll want to meet you." We quickly walked to his father's cell. Sokka went in first, and then he knocked quietly for me to go in.

"Dad this is Lin, Lin this is your Uncle Hakota," said Sokka with a smile.

"Hi," I said and smiled. I wasn't exactly sure what I should do.

"You look like your father, but you have your mother's eyes," said my Uncle Hakota. He took a step towards me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a hug. I hugged him back. I was starting to get better at the whole affection thing.

"So have we thought of a plan of escape?" Sokka asked.

"No, but no prison can hold three water bending geniuses," said my Uncle.

"Then we better go find some," said Sokka. This caused us all to laugh.

Once we figured out a plan we went to tell Zuko and told Zuko first because his cell was close to Hakota's.

"Zuko, are you there?" Sokka whispered into the window of the cell.

"I'm here," said Zuko as his eyes appeared.

"We just got back from talking with my Dad," Sokka said quietly. "The three of us came up with an escape plan together." Zuko's eyes dart to me and narrow a fraction of an inch. I just shake my head.

"What are you doing here?" came a nasally voice from behind us, I looked and saw two guards coming towards us.

"I was just telling this dirty low life what I think of him," said Sokka.

"I came for answers," I said to the guards. "This guy was supposed to be the Prince of our Nation, how could he turn traitor?" I asked and frowned.

"Well you'll have to do that later. He's coming with us," said the male guard.

"Why?" asked Sokka.

"Because we have orders straight from the Warden, that's why," said the second guard who sounded female.

"Could I just have 10 more seconds to ruff him up a bit?" Sokka asked enthusiastically, I'd wait outside.

"Fine, 10 seconds," said guard number 2. Sokka walked in and I just stood there outside leaning up against the wall

"Newbie," guard number 1 said. I just stared straight ahead and ignored them. From outside we could hear the sound of a beating ensuing inside the cell.

After a few minutes the two guards went into the cell and brought Zuko out. They had a guard on either side of him and walked him down the hall away from us. Sokka came out slowly.

"Did you tell him?" I asked, then turned and headed towards Suki's cell.

"Yea, I told him to meet us in the yard in about an hour," said Sokka. "Did the beating sound real? We rolled up his bed matt and were hitting that."

"Yea it did the trick," I said.

Next we told Suki. She agreed that we might actually have a shot with the plan. We then went over different ideas on how to start a big distraction. The only thing we could come up with was a prison riot.

About an hour later Sokka and I were headed towards Suki's cell so we could walk to the yard. We were stopped by two more guards. They asked Sokka to come with them, and their asking wasn't to kind, instead they dragged him away as if he was a prisoner. I guessed all new male guards were being inspected or something. I continued on to Suki's cell once he left.

She was practicing her drills and I used her water to practice my bending. "Lin I really think that you should use your bending for something."

"I agree with you," I said as I twirled the water in a circle. "Zuko seems to think it's a horrible idea, he said that if I'm caught the guards will torture me."

"Well he would know," she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

I sighed, "I know, I just hate not being able to help."

"I'm sure that you'll be able to help," she said and smiled down at me. "You could always put the water on the bottoms of your pants so it's available." She suggested.

"That's a good idea," I said. "Where do you think the Warden will be when we start the riot?" I asked her.

"Well since new prisoners are coming in, I bet he'll be on the second floor," she said as she placed her forefinger on her chin. "How flexible are you?"

"Flexible? I don't really know. I'd say pretty flexible, I had to use a lot of strange moves while living in the Western Air Temple."

"You live there?" she asked me. "That's a story for another time, but I was thinking if we can't start a riot I'll be able to scale the building to get to the Warden. Do you think you'll be able to follow me?"

I thought about the building where the Warden would be standing, I'd seen it while we were in the yard. "I bet I could manage, especially if I use some of the water that will be on my pants."

"How would you do that?"

"Well, this is a small amount of water, but it's enough for me to slice metal. So I could cut down a railing or something if I can't follow what you do."

"Sounds good to me," she said. we heard the doors open on the lower floors, signaling that we should head out. I poured the water from Suki's supply onto my pants. The prisoners were given a small pitcher of water for hygienic purposes. I was really glad hers was clean. Water was definitely easy to hide on your body. If we couldn't start a prison riot, it was up to me to cause a distraction; although only Sokka and Uncle Hakota knew that.

The prisoners were let out, even though the prison was under lockdown. I assumed that had something to do with Sokka. I walked towards the yard; acting as if I was making sure the prisoners went directly outside, although I kept close to Suki. We met up with Uncle Hakota and Sokka in the middle of the yard, except no one had seen Zuko.

"Ok we need to start a riot," Sokka said.

"Ok, but how are we going to do that?" Suki asked.

"I'll show you," said Uncle Hakota. He walked over to a really tall man. The stranger had a tattoo on his shoulder, and arms bigger around than my Uncle. That didn't stop my Uncle from shoving him in the back though.

"Hey, what was that for?" the man asked as he turned to face my Uncle. "That hurt my feelings."

"Aren't you mad at me?" asked my Uncle.

"No, I've been trying to control my temper," the guy said.

"This isn't working," Sokka said as he palmed his forehead.

"There has to be something…" I said trying to think; I had thought that what my Uncle did would have worked.

"Hey you, you're lucky I didn't rat you out," Chitsang said from behind us. "My generosity comes with a price. I know you're planning another escape attempt and I want in."

"Actually we're trying to escape right now, but we need a riot," Sokka said. He had a calculating look on his face. I was still a little wary of trusting Chitsang again, but Sokka was, so I held my tongue.

"A prison riot…please," said Chitsang. He walked away from us and towards a smaller man. He grabbed the guy by his shirtfront and hauled the stranger above his head. "Hey, " Chitsang yelled out for the yard to hear. "Riot!" People all over started rioting.

"Impressive," said Uncle Hakota. Sokka, Suki and I just looked at each other.

We started moving towards the Warden, but Zuko still hadn't appeared. I was getting worried. Then as if he could read my thoughts he ran up to us.

"We just need to grab the Warden and get to the gondolas," said Sokka.

"And how are we going to do that?" asked Zuko, he looked over to where the Warden was standing. It was on the second balcony, just like Suki had thought

Suki and I just looked at each other, I stepped closer to her.

"We'll jump up onto the shoulders of these men, and use them as a means to cross the yard," she said as she looked at me. "Then do you see that pipe that runs along the underside of the first floor? Hook your feet on that and flip up onto the first floor, then we'll scale the building up to where the Warden is."

I nodded my head and we slowly slipped past the guys and made our way through the crowd, I'd taken off my helmet so that I could see. I watched as Suki jumped up and started running across the prisoner's heads towards where the Warden was standing. I smiled and followed her lead. I wasn't as adapt at scaling walls, so I bended the water to make sharp picks that I could use to climb. It worked and I was able to follow Suki onto the first balcony.

I landed on my feet and bended the water to form a blade and sliced the first guard's helmet off his head. He stopped and looked at me. I smiled then froze his feet in place, and then turned to help Suki. She was already climbing the second wall, so I followed.

Once we reached the second balcony the Warden looked at us in shock. Suki went to grab him, I shot water out of my hand like a blade again, and this time the opposing guard shot fire at me. I just managed to jump out of the way, and then I froze his feet and hands in place so he couldn't bend anymore. Suki had the Warden, she'd managed to tie his hands behind his back, and use his crown like headpiece as a gag. This made me laugh. Other guards came around the corner; I had the small amount of water floating around me, and a guard frozen in front of me. They also saw the Warden in our clutches and stopped. I shot icicles at them like daggers and they all fled back around the corner. I smiled, I couldn't kill someone, but scaring them was fun.

"Sorry Warden. You're my prisoner now," Suki said and pushed him up against the wall.

"Nice team work," I said and smiled at her.

"Same to you," she said. "Loved the ice dagger trick, by the way," Suki said and we both started giggling.

We looked as the guys came running up to us, all four of them were huffing and puffing, and gasping for air. "We've got the Warden, now let's go," said Suki with a smile. Then we both giggled at the stricken faces of the guys.

Making our way towards the gondolas we encountered more guards. These too were firebenders. I still had some water left so I froze another guard in place. Zuko angrily stepped in front of me as another guard sent a stream of fire in my direction. From his position as my body guard, Zuko was able to re-bend the fire towards the guard causing the man to step back in shock.

"Back off, we've got the Warden," said Zuko.

The soldiers moved aside and we ran to the gondola. As we all raced on Zuko stayed back, he pulled the lever then broke it so that they wouldn't be able to stop us. The gondola left the landing platform and Zuko still wasn't on it. He jumped off of the platform and for a moment was suspended in air. Sokka and I both stuck our hands out of the gondolas window. We each managed to grab his hand and pull him inside.

"What were you thinking?" I asked flushed with anger.

"I made it so that they can't stop us," Zuko said as he stood, then turned on my angrily. "You water bended!"

"I had to," I said testily as I defended myself. I was going to say more but Uncle interrupted us.

"Who's that?" asked Uncle Hakota. We all turned and looked back. Two girls were staring at us, one was wearing an all pink outfit, and the other was dressed in Fire Nation attire.

"That's a problem," Zuko said, and for once his voice shook just the smallest bit. "It's my sister and her friend."

The girl in pink jumped up and started running across the gondola cords, while the other girl shot blue fire out of her hands and feet and flew towards the cable. She then handcuffed the cable and used it to slide towards us. More blue fire created enough force to push her foreword at an accelerated pace.

"This is a rematch I've been waiting for," Suki said vengefully.

"Me too," said Zuko.

I'd never met either of the girls before. Zuko climbed up onto the roof of the gondola, Sokka, Suki, and I followed. We parted into two people on each side of the roof, to keep it even. Since we were over a giant lake of boiling water I bended some up towards me, just enough so that I could comfortably manipulate the water. I pulled the water into two sections and used them like tentacles, one on each arm. Surprisingly the water didn't burn my arms; it was cool against my skin.

Suki started sparing with the pink girl, they were using hand-to-hand combat. I wasn't sure where I should help, but once the girl dressed in Fire Nation cloths started firebending I chose my side.

I shot a stream of water at the girl's hand, like a whip. She hissed and I saw a red welt appear on her wrist. So the water was still hot.

"You're with waterbending scum?" the girl asked haughtily.

I sneered at her as she called me scum, I wasn't scum. Faster than she could register I whipped her other hand. She hissed again and glared at me. Zuko shot a spout of flame towards her but she dispersed the flames. She shot more fire out of her hands, this time it was directed at me.

Zuko stepped in front of me and sent it back at the girl. Sokka managed to get in too, he got close enough that he could have cut the girls head off. She froze, Sokka stepped out of the way, and Zuko sent a huge pillar of flame towards her. I turned to see how Suki was doing, I whipped the pink girl's ankles with the hot water, and she glared at me. Then Suki inflicted a blow while the girl wasn't paying attention.

From below inside the gondola we heard the Warden yell, "Cute the lines!"

All of us ignored him, and then the gondola stopped. I watched as Sokka went flying towards the edge, but Zuko caught his arm before he went over. I turned back to face Suki and saw that she'd managed to grab onto the metal working that was attached to the cable. Pink girl advanced on her and I shot a stream of water into her neck, it burned and the girl stopped. I helped Suki get to her feet.

"They're about to cut the lines!" shouted Pink girl.

"Then it's time to leave," said Fire girl. They both jumped onto the passing gondola. We all stood there watching as the two girls slowly drifted away from us. After they passed we went back inside the gondola.

"They're cutting the lines," Zuko said anxiously. "This thing is about to go." He looked at me and glared. I assumed it was because I'd used my waterbending again. I just stuck my tongue out at him.

"Well I hope this thing floats," said Uncle Hakota. Chitsang was busy keeping the Warden quiet.

"Don't worry Uncle," I said staring right at Zuko. "I'll make it float." Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Who's that?" asked Uncle again. We all went to the back of the gondola and looked down at the landing platform. A girl with dark haired dressed in red robes was there. She was throwing knives at the guards, when they were all taken care of she released the metal bar that was holding our gondola back. We started moving again.

"It's Mai," said an astonished Zuko, go figure, his girlfriend was an astounding fighter. I let out an exasperated sigh, although I don't know why it mattered to me. I shrugged my shoulders and looked out over the prison. I felt bad for the people we'd left behind, they were still stuck here.

Shortly after Mai's display of her prowess with a knife, the gondola pulled up onto the landing dock. The doors opened and we all got off. Chitsang brought the Warden out, and Uncle directed him to throw the Warden back into the gondola.

"Well Warden," Uncle said reproachfully. "Your record is now officially broken."

We hurried down a worn footpath, "Well we made it out, now what?" asked Suki as she looked around. We didn't have a ship or anything.

"I can make an ice boat," I said. "I'll be able to control the currents so we'll get back to the western air temple pretty fast."

"That might work," Suki said. I noticed Zuko stopped and I looked back at him, my eyebrows drew together.

"Zuko, what are you doing?" Sokka asked in confusion.

"My sister was on that island," he said and looked at all of us.

"Yea and she's probably right behind us," Sokka said urgently. "So let's keep going."

"What I mean is…she must have come here somehow," he walked over to the edge of the footpath and looked over. "There, that's our way out of here." He said and pointed.

Sitting on the beach was a Fire Nation air ship. It was much bigger than the one we'd arrived in. We raced down to the beach and I released the water around my arms. The balloon was empty, and it was easy for Zuko to get it started, once he did we lifted off of the beach and were on our way home.

"So where'd you find your cousin Sokka," Asked Uncle Hakota. He was sitting against the inner wall of the ship, along with everyone else.

"She was living in the Western Air Temple," he replied.

"Are your parents still alive?" My Uncle asked me.

"No," I said sadly. "They went on a hunting trip and never returned." I looked away from him. It was hard to tell people that my parents had disappeared.

"You're a very brave girl Lin, they'd both be proud," my Uncle said warmly.

"Thanks," I said and blushed.

After awhile people started drifting off to sleep. The sun had set and the moon was almost at its zenith. I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep till I woke up to see Chitsang tending to the fire that kept the balloon in the air. I moved a little to get comfortable again, I'd fallen asleep sitting up against the side of the ship. My neck was really stiff from having been crooked to the side of my shoulder. I moved up a little to see if there was something I could rest my head on, I felt an arm tighten around my waist.

I looked to my left and was slightly surprised. I was stunned to see a bleary eyed Zuko looking at me.

"You ok?" he asked in a husky, sleep sounding voice.

"Yea," I said and looked away confused. I shivered slightly, and realized I was a little cold. He pulled me closer to him, and I felt my cheeks blush.

"Use my shoulder as a pillow," he said. "It'll be more comfortable than trying to use your own shoulder."

"Thanks Zuko," I said and placed my head on his shoulder. I was a lot more comfortable in this position than I had been.

"No problem, it's," he paused and I looked up at him, and found he was smiling. "It's what friends do, right?"

"Right," I said with a soft laugh, I put my head back on his shoulder. He sighed, and I felt him put his cheek on the top of my head. I was lulled to sleep by his even breathing. 

All too soon we were being roused, the sky was still dark and I just wanted to go back to sleep. I looked up and saw Sokka looking down at Zuko and I. I blushed profusely and Sokka gave Zuko and me a funny look, but he didn't say anything. I turned to Zuko and noticed he was blushing slightly too.

"You're blushing," I said with a laugh.

"Not as much as you are," he said and smiled."By the way, you have lines on your face." I looked at him and rubbed my face, I couldn't see how bad they were.

"So do you," I said haughtily. I stood up and stretched, it felt wonderful. I looked over my shoulder and shook my head, Zuko was stretching too. I walked to the front of the balloon hoping to catch a glimpse of the ocean. Instead I saw the recognizable buildings of the air temple and smiled. We landed the giant air ship and everyone ran to meet us. Sokka, Zuko, and I were the first ones off the ship.

"What happened to you guys?" Katara asked. "And why are you in one of those things, what happened to the war balloon?"

"It kind of got destroyed," said Zuko, with a small smile.

"Sounds like a crazy fishing trip," said Aang.

"Did you at least get some good meat?" asked Toph, I smiled and rubbed my eyes.

"We did," said Sokka, "the best meat of all, that of friendship and fatherhood."

I snorted at this. The things Sokka could come up with sometimes were so weird. But hey, that's Sokka for you.

That's when Uncle Hakota, Suki, and Chitsang stepped off the air ship.

"I'm new," Chitsang said with a smile. "What's up everybody?" he asked with a wave. It made me laugh…little random things made me laugh.

"Dad," Katara said and ran forward to meet him. He gave her a hug. "How are you here? What's going on, where did you guys go?" Katara asked enthusiastically.

"We visited a Fire Nation prison," said Sokka. Then he too was pulled into a hug.

"Come on Lin you too," said Uncle Hakota. I shyly walked over and was enveloped into a hug.

"Seriously you guys didn't find any meat?" asked Toph, I laughed and pulled away from my newfound family.

"Nope, I got to meet a whole bunch of fire benders," I said and yawned. "I'm tired, I'm going to bed." I said and walked towards my borrowed bedroll, Zuko had continued to let me use his. The night wasn't completely over, there were still a few good hours of sleep left.

"I'll agree to that," said Zuko. He followed me and laid his bedroll next to mine. Once he was settled I whispered, "See my waterbending came in handy." He looked over at me and I stuck my tongue out.

"Sure, but now my sister knows that you're a waterbender," he said. "But thanks for helping," he whispered. I could see the glittering gold of his eyes.

"Anytime," I whispered. "Oh and by the way, you make a really good pillow."

He smiled at me and moved a little closer. "Anytime," he said and smiled at me. I smiled back and closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. For the first time, in a long time, I felt completely safe.


	4. Heated Romance Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – The Southern Raiders:**

Appa's roar filled the foyer, followed by the sound of an explosion. Rocks started falling from the ceiling. I jumped up and rubbed my eyes to clear away any remnants of sleep. Everyone was looking around in confusion. We all had matching faces of astonishment and surprise. In the early morning fog giant shadows started to appear. As the fog dissipates air ships become visible. They begin shooting more bombs at the air temple and the mountain shakes. More rocks start falling and all I can seem to do is watch the ensuing chaos.

"Watch out!" Zuko shouts, I hear a thud. I look over my shoulder and see him lying on top of Katara. I look up and see a large chunk of rock falling above me. I brace myself for impact but it never comes. I open my eyes and watch as the rock hits the opposite side of the mountain. Aang smiles at me and I smile back.

From behind me I hear Toph say, "Come on, we can get out through here." Everyone rushes towards her and the large tunnel that she's standing in front of.

"What are you doing?" Aang asks. I look back over my shoulder to see Zuko standing in front of the edge.

"Go ahead," Zuko replies. "I'll hold them off. I think this is a family visit." I go to take a step towards him, to try and stop him, but I choose not to. He most likely won't want my help. Instead I just look at his back, hoping that he'll change his mind.

"Zuko no!" shouts Aang.

"Come on we've got to get out of here," says Sokka as he runs towards Aang. Katara runs with him.

They pull on Appa's reins as Zuko disappears into the rock dust. The walls start crumbling around us.

"We've got to help him," I say as I run towards Appa.

"I think this is something personal for him," Sokka says and pulls against Appa.

"Still he could die," I say and grab part of one of the reins and pull.

"Right now we have to get Appa to go into the tunnel," Katara says.

"Yea, I doubt he's going to budge. He outweighs us by a good 2 tons," I say as I pull against the rein. "We can't force him to do anything." I say even though I again try to pull on the rein.

"I can't get him to go in there," Aang says in an almost defeated manner. "Appa hates going underground."

"Aang there's no way we could fly out of here," Katara says in her logical voice.

"There's got to be another way," Aang says stubbornly.

"We need to split up," Sokka said. "Take the tunnel and get to the stolen air ship," he said while looking at his Dad, Chitsang, the Duke, Haru, Suki, and Toph. Sokka runs towards Suki and Toph, and grabbed their hands. He led them over to Appa.

"No!" Katara said angrily. "I'm not going to let the Fire Nation split up our family again."

"It'll be ok, it's not forever," Uncle Hakota said calmly. Katara giver her Dad a hug then turns to me, "Well come on."

She grabs my wrist and pulls me towards Appa. Sokka was already helping Suki and Toph onto Appa's back, the rock walls continued to fall around us. Toph and Aang discuss how they're going to use the loose rock as a shield for Appa's head. Suki points out that there's a lot of fire being thrown that way.

"We'll get through. Let's go," says Aang.

Appa leaps into the air and the wall disappears in front of the big flying bison. Toph uses the wall as a shield for Appa's head. I watch in amazement as the blue fire bounces off of the makeshift shield.

We all look back to see Zuko standing on an air ship facing the fire girl from the day before. She smiled cruelly at Zuko, shooting a flame of blue fire towards him and laughing. I watched the battle ensue; Zuko was creating orange fire and the girl was throwing the distinctive blue flames.

Soon Katara and I became distracted from the battle of fire. As we passed the other airships the firebenders started using us as target practice.

"Katara lets make a shield out of water," I suggest as I stand up. Katara nods her head and moves to stand at the front of the saddle. I stand towards the back and we bend her extra supply of water into a giant circle. We pass it back and forth, and I smile as the fire bounces right off and dissipates.

I'd been concentrating on protecting everyone that I hadn't realized Aang had turned around to go back to help Zuko. I had a funny feeling so I looked up and saw Zuko's face inches from my own. I reached my hands up and he grabbed them, with the speed he was falling at we fell to the floor of Appa's saddle. He landed on top of me and the air rushed out of my lungs. His eyes widened and he pushed off of me, and then helped me to sit up. He leaned me against the side of the saddle while I gasped for breath. His one hand was on the side of my neck, the other on my hip.I watched as he looked over his shoulder and his lips tightened into a line.

"She's not going to make it," he says. I can see the form of a person flying through the air. Suddenly she straightens her body and shoots fire out of her feet, and flies towards the side of what is left of the western air temple. "Of course she does." Zuko says sarcastically, and we make safely away from the airships.

He turns back to me and looks at me with concern in his eyes. "Are you alright?"

I nod my head, I'm still gasping slightly, I'd never had the breath compressed from my body before. "Fine," I whisper out. He lightly traces the underside of my jaw with his hand then moves to sit next to me.

We flew for most of the day, and spent most of it in silence. I'd tried to make conversation by asking questions but everyone only gave me one word answers so I stopped. It was around twilight when we decided to land. We found a small outcropping on a ledge overlooking the sea. By the time we'd settled in and set up our tents night had fallen. I watched as Toph made her tent out of earth…I guess to her that was comfortable.

"Camping," Aang said wistfully. "It really makes it feel like old times again doesn't it?" Aang asked as we all sat around the fire.

"If you really want to make it feel like old times I could always uh," Zuko said hesitantly. "Chase you around and try to capture you." He meant it to be funny, and everyone laughed.

"To Zuko," Sokka said as he raised his glass. "Who knew after all those times you tried to snuff us out, that today he'd be our hero."

"Here, here." We all said in unison, except Katara. I sighed and looked away.

"I'm touched," Zuko said. "I don't deserve this."

"Yea no kidding," Katara angrily said as she stood up and stormed off.

"What's with her?" asked Sokka.

"I wish I knew," said Zuko as he stood up and followed her. A new emotion flooded my person as he walked after her; it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

"What's with him?" Sokka asked again.

"Maybe they secretly like each other," I snapped, then stood up and walked into one of the extra tents that had been on Appa during the invasion.

"What's with her?" I heard Sokka ask as I walked away from the small fire.

I lay awake for a while, trying to figure out why I'd gotten so angry that Zuko had gone after Katara. I really had no idea what was wrong with me. I couldn't sleep, so when everyone else went to bed I crawled out of my bed roll and peeked out of my tent, no one was sitting around the fire. I snuck out and walked towards the cliff where I could hear and smell the sea. It'd been so long since I'd gotten a chance to enjoy the sea.

I walked quietly and as I passed Sokka's tent I ran into Zuko. "Oof," I said and stumbled backwards, he grabbed my hands so I wouldn't fall.

"Sorry Lin," he said as he looked at me. "Why are you still awake?" he asked. His hands still holding mine, they were warm against my skin.

"I couldn't sleep," I said and looked away from him. "And I wanted to see the ocean," I said slowly, thinking about each word as I said it. His eyes narrowed, and I felt a slight burn on my cheeks.

"Could I join you?" he asked suspiciously. What he could possibly be suspicious of I had no idea, it wasn't like I was running away.

"Sure, I don't care." I said and pulled my hands out of his. The anger and bitter flavor came back into my mouth. "It's not like I ever enjoy solitude or anything." I turned and continued towards the cliff. Once I got there I sat cross-legged on the grassy ground.

"You just snapped at me," Zuko sounded confused.

"Yea, I have a temper too ya know," I said and looked out at the sea. The waves caught hold of my attention.

"Why are you angry?" he asked as he sat down next to me. He put his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands and looked at me. I ignored his golden gaze, even though his eyes seemed to glow softly in the dark.

"I don't know," I spit out. "I just am, is that a problem?" I snapped at him, the waves got higher and stronger with my emotions, it intrigued me.

"Well at least no one here hates you," he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. I was able to watch him from the corner of my eye. I knew he wanted to talk to me, like friends do, but instead of saying anything I just continued to look out at the sea.

"Lin I can tell something's bothering you," Zuko said. He moved closer to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I told you I don't know," I said frustrated. I hated knowing that I was confusing him, he was my friend and he obviously cared about my feelings too, I just didn't want to discuss what I was feeling with him.

"If you don't mind Zuko, I'd like to be alone," I said and avoided his gaze. For a few minutes he didn't leave, just continued to stare at me with his hand on my shoulder. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose, stood up, and walked away.

I let out a sigh, and realized I didn't feel any better now that I was alone. I stood up and walked back to my tent, Zuko was sitting outside of Katara's tent. I clenched my teeth and walked past him, then crawled back into my own tent and went to sleep. I was feeling so angry and I honestly had no idea why.

The next morning I woke to Katara and Aang yelling at each other. She and Zuko had decided they were going to go look for the man who'd taken her mother. Aang tried to convince her to forgive the man but she just ignored him. She got angry and stormed off. I left and went to the cliffs. I couldn't stand the arguing, plus I wanted to figure out what the bitter taste and the angry feelings were all about.

When I got there I wasn't alone, Suki was sitting in the grass looking out at the sea. "Hey Suki," I said and sat down.

"Hi Lin, could you not stand the arguing either?" she asked and looked at me.

"No, and yes, I really don't know," I said with a sigh. "When I see Zuko and Katara together I get so mad, I even get this bitter taste in my mouth." I trailed off, realizing I'd probably said too much. "I'm sorry Suki. I didn't mean to unload on you."

"It's ok, this is something I can help with," she said and smiled at me. "I think you're jealous of Katara. When did these feelings start?" She patiently asked.

"At the air temple, he pushed her out of the way of a falling bolder and I was almost crushed," I said sadly. "If Aang hadn't airbended it away I'd have been squashed." I blushed. When I said it out loud I sounded stupid and petty. "I sound ridiculous."

"Nah, you've been alone for a few months, and you've never gotten to experience a crush or any sort of attraction to another person," she said and smiled at me. "It's understandable, I think you'll be ok," Suki said.

"What's a crush?"

"Oh, right," Suki said with a soft giggle, "Well it's when you like a guy, you get butterflies in your stomach, he makes you feel tingly, and you get jealous which is the bitter taste in your mouth."

"How do I get over this crush?" I asked worriedly.

"I don't know how you'd get over it," she said with a shrug. "Crushes just sort of happen when you're attracted to someone, you can't really control it."

"I don't want to have a crush," I said in an almost whiney voice. "I like him as a friend, and I think he needs friends, what if he doesn't feel the same about me?" Now I was just rambling.

"Lin, I don't think you should worry about it," Suki said calmly. "Zuko does need friends, and I think you were the first person to truly trust him. I think it made him see that he can be a good person."

"But I just met him, how can I have a crush on him?" I think a part of me was in denial.

"I don't know, like I said, feelings just sort of happen," she said and squeezed my hand. "The first time a met Sokka he thought didn't think I could be a good warrior because I was a girl, and I disliked him for it. Then I got to know him and I realized I did like him."

"What should I do? I think he likes Katara, she's stubborn, strong willed…I'm, I don't know what I am," I said sadly. "I've never had to prove myself," I looked down at the ocean, the waves were slow today, and they were making a soft swooshing sound.

"You had to survive on your own Lin," Suki said with conviction. "You persevered in a situation where many adults would have given up hope. I don't think Zuko likes Katara, in my opinion, I don't think Zuko knows how to like anyone," Suki said and squeezed my shoulder reassuringly.

I sighed, "Maybe you're right, I shouldn't let it bother me."

"Well maybe you should talk to Katara," she suggested with a shrug. "I t might make you feel better."

"Nah, she'll jus think I'm acting childish, and I don't feel like getting patronized by a 13 year old." It was true, sometimes Katara acted older, and then at other times she acted like a 13 year old.

"You're doing it again," Suki said and laughed.

"Doing what?"

"Ac ting jealous."

"No I'm not."

"Yea, the whole 13 year old thing, sounded a little jealous there."

"But…uhh…how do I make it stop?" I asked pleadingly.

"Well, I still think you should talk to Katara. I really don't think she has feelings for Zuko."

"Ok, I'll talk to Katara…about boys," I said and rolled my eyes. This caused both of us to laugh. "Do you know how ridiculous feel? I've never talked about boys…" I said with a disgruntled expression.

"Don't worry, everyone goes through that stage," Suki said with a laugh. "You're just a late bloomer."

"Thanks Suki," I said sarcastically. She just laughed harder.

That night I went to Katara's tent, only she wasn't there. I walked past Zuko's tent and when I called out his name got no answer. That's when I heard the voices. I followed the sounds and saw both Katara and Zuko dressed all in black.

"You were just going to take Appa?" Aang asked angrily.

"Yes," Katara replied curtly.

"That's ok because I forgive you," Aang said. "Does that give you any ideas?" he asked hopefully.

"Don't try to stop us," Katara said angrily.

"I wasn't planning on it, this is a journey you must take, you need to face this man," said Aang. "But when you do please don't choose revenge, let your anger out and then let it go. Forgive him."

Katara said nothing, just mounted on Appa. Zuko threw a bag up onto the large saddle.

"Ok, we'll be sure to do that guru-goodie-goody," said Zuko, he jumped up onto Appa's back.

"Thanks Aang, for understanding. Yip, yip," said Katara, then they were gone.

"Ya know, you're pretty wise for a kid." Sokka said.

"Thanks Sokka."

"Usually it's annoying, but right now I'm just impressed."

"I appreciate that." Aang said as he watched the sky.

I sighed and made my way back towards my tent. "Hey Lin," came Suki's voice.

"Hey Suki," I said sullenly, but kept walking.

"I don't think it's what you're thinking," she said as she caught up to me.

"Suki, you were there when we rescued you, even if Zuko doesn't like Katara he has another girlfriend," I said sadly. "I'll never have a chance with him," I wouldn't meet her gaze, I wasn't looking for reassurances, and I was just stating the obvious.

"Then why do you get jealous of Katara?" Suki asked confused.

"I don't know," I said confused. "When I see him with Katara I don't think about his girlfriend, in all honesty I don't know what to feel. I'm a mess." I said and tried to walk faster. "It was better when I didn't have to deal with these emotions."

"You're not a mess, this is what all girls go through. Everything will work out," Suki said trying to sound reassuring.

"Thanks Suki, I think I'm going to go to bed though."

"Ok, well I'll see you in the morning." With that I walked into my tent, and tried to fall asleep.

The next morning Zuko came back with Appa, he said he'd left Katara on Ember Island. He explained his family had an old house we could stay in. We packed up camp and Aang flew to Ember Island. I sat as far from Zuko as I could, I didn't want to become jealous again. Plus I was so confused I wasn't sure what I would say to him. Although, I could have sworn that he was staring at me the whole time we were flying.

When we got there I saw Katara sitting alone on a pier, Appa landed and then Aang ran to her they talked and I watched as she jumped on Zuko and gave him a hug. I felt a deep sorrow in my gut and looked down at the sand, when I looked up again she was standing and making her way towards me.

"Lin can I talk to you?" she asked me, I could see a rim of tears in her eyes. I nodded and she led the way to the house we were going to be staying in. She went up a flight of stairs and entered a room. "I feel horrible," She said and broke down into sobs. I pulled her gently towards the bed, we sat down and I held her in my arms as she cried.

"It's alright Katara. Everything will be alright," I said soothingly, I ran a hand down her back. I had no idea what she'd been through, but she was the little girl who'd lost her mother and confronted the man that had taken her away.

"It was awful Lin," she said as she pulled away. "We found the Southern Raiders and the captain wasn't the man who took my mother, but I didn't realize it at first. I was so overcome with anger and revenge that I used blood bending on him. It was so easy, and in a way I liked it. I felt powerful. When I realized it wasn't him I felt awful, I'd done the very act I swore never to do again." She said sniffling as she wiped her tears away.

"Katara it's ok," I said as I patted her on the back. "What you did is understandable. You wanted so desperately for him to suffer the way you have, anyone would have done the same in your situation." I said to her.

"But when I found the right man I couldn't kill him, I scared him but I was weak," she said and sniffed again.

"Not killing isn't a weakness. In a way it shows how much restraint you have over yourself. You proved that you were stronger than the man who took your mother." I wasn't sure if I was making sense but her breathing eased a little and her blue eyes looked up at me, and there were no more tears.

"Aang said something similar to that," she said and gave me a weak smile. "Thanks Lin, I just needed a shoulder to cry on, you're like the big sister I never had." She hugged me and I smiled.

"Could I ask you something quick?" I asked sheepishly. "I promised Suki I would," I said and she nodded her head. "Do you like Zuko?" I felt so weird asking.

She started laughing so hard tears streamed down her cheeks again, "Of course I don't," she said when she was able to speak again. "I just decided the guy was worthy of my friendship. Why, do you like him?" she asked me.

"I don't know," I said with a shrug. "Suki said I have a crush on him, but all the emotions I feel towards him are strange. But that's what happens when you live alone for a while with no one but your parents." I said and looked out the window. We could see everyone playing in the fading sunlight.

She giggled, "So you like Zuko, good luck with that one." She said and shook her head. "Let's go outside though it seems like everyone's having fun." She stood up and grabbed my wrist and we headed back outside.

Later that night once everyone was asleep I snuck outside to sit by the ocean. The sound of the waves lapping up against the sand was soothing. I threw down an old faded blanket and then lay down on it. I shut my eyes and just listened to the sound.

"Were you just going to lie there all night?" My heart leaped up into my throat and my eyes shot open. Zuko was standing over me blocking out the light of the moon.

"I was, but now you're in my way," I said. I sat up and moved over; he sat down on the blanket next to me. I pulled my knees up to my chest and folded my arms over them.

"Why would you stay out here all night long?" he asked me.

"Because of the ocean, I haven't heard it in a really long time," I said and looked back out over the dark waves.

"You heard it last night," he said looking at me funny.

"I did, but I still like listening to it," I said and shook my head.

We sat there in silence for a few moments, the warmth from Zuko's body sending goose bumps up my arms. "Lin, can I ask you something?" His voice whispered in the darkness. I turned and looked at him.

"Sure," I said and shrugged my shoulders.

"Well, I saw Katara do this weird sort of bending, she controlled a man's body." His gaze locked onto mine, "Can you do that to?"

"It's called blood bending," I said as I rested my head on my arms and looked at him sideways. "Katara warned me about it. If I really wanted to I could, but I have no desire to control someone else," I said and looked him straight in the eye, it was true. He let out a sigh and smiled at me.

"So, how are you liking the world," he said.

"Liking the world?" I asked with a smile on my face.

"Yea," he said and run a hand through his hair. "I meant are you enjoying yourself. Seeing as this is the first time you've really been away from the air temple."

I laughed and elbowed him in the arm. "I'm enjoying myself Zuko, thanks for asking. What about you? Now that you've joined the team, does the world look different?"

He paused a moment, and just stared at me. I raised an eyebrow at him, I wasn't sure what he was thinking.

"I guess it does," he said after a few minutes. "You're one of the weirdest people I've met."

"That's nice to say to your friend," I said and glared at him.

"I didn't mean it like that," he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I meant that, you're the first person to actually see the good me, the…the one who I've always been."

I smiled at him and leaned into him, "You're not so hard to like Zuko, you said yourself that you have a girlfriend, that has to amount to something."

"How'd you know about that?" he asked me startled.

"I heard you telling Sokka when we were on our way to the boiling rock," I said and looked away."

"Oh," he said then put his arm around me. "Mai and I have a complicated past, I grew up with her and it made sense to have feelings for her. I didn't really get to meet a lot of people when I was younger, and then I was banished."

"At least you had Mai then," I said and looked out towards the ocean. "Suki had to explain to me what it is to have a crush on someone, talk about feeling ridiculous." I said and laughed at myself.

"Who do you have a crush on?" I could feel his breath on my neck and it made me shiver.

"No one," I said and was glad he couldn't see me blushing.

"Oh," he said dejectedly.

"Have you ever had a crush on someone?" It seemed stupid to ask, seeing as he just admitted to liking Mai because it made sense. But I couldn't just end the conversation with an 'oh.'

He rubbed the back of his neck before speaking. I couldn't help but smirk at him. "I guess you could say I have," he said sheepishly.

"Really, what was her name?" I asked, I didn't mind putting him on the spot, but there was no way I would admit to him that I had a crush on him.

"Uh…," he said and rubbed the back of his neck again.

"Don't tell me it was Katara," I said and felt myself cringe on the inside. She may not like him, but he could still possibly like her.

"No, she's…don't get me wrong she's great but," he said and looked down at me. "She's not my type."

"Really," I said and shrugged my shoulders.

"What about you, what's your type?"

"I can't say that I really know what my type is," I said and gave him a sly look. "You and Haru are the only guys I've met that are my age."

"You liked Haru?" he asked angrily. I watched as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I didn't say that," I said and smiled at him. "The two of you are the only guys I've met that I found myself attracted to."

"That's liking him Lin," Zuko said seriously.

I raised a brow at him, "Why are you so upset over it?"

He let out an exasperated sigh, "I just am alright, he wouldn't be the guy for you."

"Really?" I asked sarcastically. "And you know what guy is the guy for me?"

For a minute he didn't say anything, and the arm he had around my waist tightened. The next thing I knew I was lying on my back and Zuko was looking down at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I attempted to sit back up.

"Showing you what guy is right for you," he said then kissed me.

It was my first kiss so I felt like a moron. He gently brushed my lips with his, and I felt a tingling sensation within my stomach. He traced the seam of my lips with his tongue and I opened my mouth.

We stayed like this for quite a while. It felt wonderful to be kissed by Zuko, when we finally pulled apart we were both slightly out of breath.

"I think I'd have to agree with you," I said and smiled up at him. His gold eyes glittered and he kissed me again.

"I think it's a wise decision," he said. I cupped the side of his face and pecked him on the lips.

"It's getting late, we should probably head inside," I said with a slight frown. I would gladly stay out on the beach all night with Zuko, but the wind began to pick up and it was slightly chill.

"I'll walk you to your room," he said and stood up. He offered me a hand and I accepted it. We walked back to the house hand in hand, and I was glad it was dark outside. My face felt really warm and I knew that I was blushing profusely.

We arrived at the door leading to my room and I looked up at him.

"Thanks for sitting out on the beach with me," I said shyly.

"It was my pleasure," he said with a smile. He cupped the side of my face and tilted my chin up and kissed me good night.

We pulled apart and I smiled at him, "Well, good night I guess."

"Good night," he said. I turned the knob and walked into my room. I couldn't stop smiling as I lay down to sleep that night.


	5. Heated Romance Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – The Ember Island Players:**

Once the sun was up Zuko and Aang started practicing their firebending. It was a sight to see. Both were strong and smooth in their forms, it was a technique I didn't understand. With my waterbending it was graceful and fluid, fire was something entirely different. While they practiced Katara, Toph and I sat on a step leading out into the courtyard. From our positions we were able to watch the guys practice.

"Don't you think it's a little weird that we're hiding from the fire nation in the Fire Lord's own home?" Katara asked.

"No," I said with a shrug. "Zuko said he doesn't come here," I said as I sat on the stairs drawing. I'd found a piece of parchment, ink, and a brush in the house. I was shocked that the ink was still useable. I just had to add a little water to it. I hadn't drawn in a really long time, and I was enjoying myself immensely. I was using the empty fountain sitting in the middle of the court yard as a model.

"Exactly," said Zuko as he and Aang stopped for the day. "I told you, my father hasn't come here since my family was actually happy, and that was a long time ago," he said in a mundane manner. "It's the last place anyone would think to look for us."

I looked up to get another look at a detail on the fountain and realized Zuko was sitting on the empty fountain with his shirt off. My stomach clenched and my mouth went a little dry. I was afraid I was going to throw up or something. I felt my cheeks instantly burn. It seemed that even though we'd made out the night before I was still a little innocent when it came to seeing him partially naked.

"You guys are not going to believe this!" Sokka's excited voice came through the open door that lead back into the house. "There's a play about us."

"We were just in town and we found this poster," Suki said as Sokka unfurled said poster.

"What? How is that possible?" asked Katara. We all stood up and moved closer to Sokka and Suki.

"Listen to this," Sokka began as he looked at the poster. "'The Boy in the Iceberg is the new production from the acclaimed playwright Po Wantin, who scoured the world gathering information on the avatar," he said in an announcer's tone. "From the icy South Pole, to the heart of Ba Sing Se, his sources include singing nomads, pirates, prisoners of war, and a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage."

"Brought to you by the critically acclaimed Ember Island Players," Suki read.

They both sounded excited, it did sound interesting. I secretly wondered if they'd have me in the play. I wasn't sure if anyone knew I'd joined the small group or not.

"Uhh," Zuko said disgustedly. I looked over at him questioningly. "My mother used to take us to see them. They butchered 'Love Amongst the Dragons' every year." We all looked at each other.

"Sokka, do you really think it's a good idea for us to attend a play about ourselves?" Katara asked.

"Come on a day at the theater?" he asked. "This is the kind of wacky time wasting nonsense I've been missing," he stated excitedly.

"Come on Katara it could be fun," Toph said. "When was the last time you went to a theater?"

"I'd like to go," Aang said really interested. "I haven't been in over a century."

"I've never been at all," I said bluntly. "Can we please go?" I asked. I really wanted to go. Everyone seemed so excited about it. It seemed the one we had to convince was Katara, she was the one who always did the responsible thing.

"Oh, I guess so," she finally said, with a wave of her hand. We all cheered, then went back to doing whatever it was we'd been doing.

I went back and sat down on the stairs, I wanted to finish my drawing. I'd leave it in the house, I couldn't carry it with me.

"You know the play probably won't be that good," Zuko said as he came over and sat next to me.

"I get to go to a play," I said and smirked at him. "It could be the worst play in the world, but I'll be able to say I went." The entire left side of my body was tingling from the heat his body was emanating. It was as if after kissing him my senses were hypersensitive to his presence.

"If you say so," he said and leaned closer to me. He brushed my bare shoulder with his own bare shoulder and I felt tingles race all across my skin. "Can I see what you're drawing?" he asked, his voice slightly deeper than normal.

"It's nothing, just the fountain," I said and showed it to him. He looked at the drawing then our eyes met, I felt my cheeks burn again. It was embarrassing how my emotions were so obvious.

"It's really good, did you have lessons?" he asked. I raised a brow at him, and then waited till he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I mean…" he began but I interrupted him.

"My mother did teach me, and she'd taken lessons so," I said and poked him in the ribs. "Technically I did have lessons."

"Oh," he said surprised.

"Zuko," I said with a soft laugh in my voice. "I was teasing you."

"I knew that," he said and blushed ever so slightly.

"This is going to sound mean but, you need to relax." He frowned and looked away from me. I placed my hand on his bare shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. "I didn't mean to offend you, I've figured out you've had a rough life so far. Relaxing is something that's hard for you to do."

He placed his hand over mine and looked up at me. He shook his head, and I was afraid that I'd truly upset him. "Lin, I don't know how you do it," he said and smiled softly. "You can be so blunt about something in a teasing way, and yet you truly understand how I think."

I blushed, "Zuko I," I began but he interrupted me.

"Don't feel bad, you're the first person to understand me, and I don't know how to react to it," he said.

"Mai had to have understood you for you too," I said. How could his girlfriend not understand him?

"No she didn't," he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She…she's different. She's not like you," he said and frowned.

"What is she like? You told Sokka she sighs a lot, what does that mean?"

"Well, she's not really open to talking about things, and she's always saying she hates the world," he said. "Once I tried to give her a seashell at the beach, and she thought it was stupid."

"That's rude," I said affronted. "It was a gift. She should have accepted it graciously."

"So girls really do like getting things like seashells?" He asked innocently.

"I know I would," I said bluntly. "I'm sure most girls do, you like getting gifts don't you?" I asked.

"I've gotten some gifts, and I liked it," he said with a shrug. I again couldn't help but think of his childhood. My parents would surprise me with new toys my dad had carved out of wood. I couldn't imagine a world where a parent wouldn't appreciate their own child.

"It sounds to me that you're right," I said and leaned into him. We were alone out in the courtyard. "She didn't understand you at all." He wrapped his arm around my waist.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the peace that seemed to be within the small courtyard. The birds were chirping and the day was gorgeous. In fact at one point I felt myself starting to nod off, using Zuko's shoulder as a pillow. I laughed, "Sorry," I said as I stood up and stretched.

"For what?" he asked as he followed me.

"Using you as a pillow," I said and smirked.

"Don't be," he said and smiled down at me. "I was using the top of your head as a pillow too."

I laughed, "Well at least we were using each other," I said that then scrunched my face. "That didn't make much sense did it?"

"Nope," he said and shook his head.

"We should probably see where everyone else is," I said and looked around. They were probably down by the beach. "What time were we leaving for the play?" I asked him.

"I don't know, they usually figure stuff like that out."

"Hmm, well let's go look for them."

"Lin," he said, I stopped to look behind me.

"Yeah?"

"I, uh…noticed that unlike the others you don't have any fire nation clothing," he said and looked down at me. I looked down at my own clothes. They were an old pair of my mother's that I'd hemmed to fit myself. "I bet there's something here that you could wear," he said sounding a little nervous, which was unlike him.

"I hadn't thought of that," I said and frowned. "Especially if we go to that play, I'll stick out like a sore thumb." I looked back up into his eyes. "Thanks for looking out for me," I said and quickly stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.

"Yea," he said with a goofy smile on his face. It made me giggle. "Come on," he said. He reached for my hand and we walked back inside. He led me down a few dusty hallways until we came to door that looked untouched.

Everything inside the room was pristine, the bed was made, there was even an old hair brush on the dresser. He led me over to an old armoire, when he opened it I was shocked to see quite a few outfits that were in great shape. They just seemed dusty, but there was no sign of moth or mice damage.

He pulled out a fancy looking shirt that was a dark maroon color and split in the middle. There was a gold necklace like collar with opals set in the chest. Next he handed me a long matching skirt, there was a gold braided rope with more opals that hung off my waist. There was even a pair of sandals for my feet. He placed everything on the old bed that was still in the room.

"These should fit you," he said in a voice that was slightly gruff. "They're a little old but I don't think people will notice too much." He wouldn't look at me, and went to walk out of the room. He stopped with his hand on the door frame, "I'll wait outside for you." Then he left, closing the door behind him.

I changed out of my old water tribe clothes. It felt funny being in a color that wasn't blue. I unbraided my hair and let it fall loosely around my shoulders. I slipped the shoes on and left my clothes on the bed. I opened the door and saw Zuko leaning against the wall, his eyes widened a little.

"Do I look ok?"

"You…you look like my mother," he said in a soft whisper.

I wasn't sure what to say, he'd never mentioned his mother before. "Do you want me to change?"

"No, she's not going to need them anymore," he said and he looked sad. I stepped closer to him and took his hands in mine.

"What happened to her Zuko?"

"She disappeared a long time ago, and no one will tell me what happened."

I leaned in closer and wrapped my arms around his neck, at first he was stiff then he wrapped his arms around my waist in an embrace. He tightened his hold and buried his head in my neck.

Later that night we all made our way towards the theater. I was so excited! When we got there our seats were located in the balcony. It gave us a wicked good view of the stage.

We all filed in, first Toph, then Katara, Zuko, and Aang all in the first row. Me, Suki, and Sokka got the second row, my heart sank when Zuko sat by Katara. I thought that we were starting to get closer, and yet he didn't seem to want to sit next to me. Course, he did have a better view from where he was. I would ignore the jealousy I was feeling and concentrate on the play once it started. I watched as Aang tired to get Zuko to switch with him, it was really obvious that he had a crush on Katara. Zuko though refused to move and Aang got stuck sitting next to Zuko.

"Why are we sitting in the nose bleed section?" Toph asked. "My feet can't see a thing from up here."

"Don't worry I'll tell your feet what's happening." Katara said. Then the curtains opened and I forgot about the seating arrangements.

In the first half of the play I learned how Sokka and Katara found Aang, but everyone seemed to be disappointed in their characters. Katara was extremely emotional, sobbing and preaching about hope. Sokka could only think about food, and made really lame jokes that I tended to laugh at, even though no one else really did.

Toph thought everyone was portrayed accurately, she laughed at how they acted. When Aang's character came out of the iceberg I started laughing hysterically. He was being played by a small girl, this was probably because Aang was young and it was easier to find a slim girl to play him than a young boy. Toph was laughing just as hard as I was, I think it was easier for us to sit back and laugh because we saw past the pretenses everyone else put before themselves. Me it was easy because I'd just met them, and could easily pick out their bad habits and annoying traits.

Zuko's character came out next, along with his Uncle. I was finally going to learn more about Zuko's past. His Uncle looked nice enough. His character seemed more interested in tea and food than in catching the avatar. Zuko's character on the other hand, was almost perfect. He had no sense of humor and was angry all the time. I found out that he was bent on regaining his honor, and that's what caused him to chase the avatar. I couldn't help but think there was more to it than just regaining his honor.

Zuko himself said the writers made him look stiff and humorless, but in a way it was the truth. Zuko didn't really know how to loosen up and have fun, which I'd told him. He was so emotionally scarred, that he was going to have trouble. He also seemed to have such a conflict within himself, he wanted to do the right thing, but he also had his own training disagreeing with his gut instincts. It also irritated me that his scar was on the wrong side, which I thought was a little dumb since he was technically the prince of the Fire Nation. You'd think people would know what he looked like.

Next the group went to the Northern Air Temple, which was where they found Momo. Although in the play Momo talked, which I thought was a little over the top. Suki's character showed up next, only she was wearing the traditional garb of a Kyoshi warrior. Sokka was shown trying one of the traditional robes on, he made it seem silly.

The group then went to the Earth Kingdom called Omashu, which had a crazy King. I found him to be extremely funny. After that the playwrights showed Katara stealing a water scroll from a bunch of pirates. The pirates didn't do a very good job though and made it look easy to escape from them.

In the next scene Aang had been captured by Zuko and was being held prisoner. But a blue masked man rescued the Aang from the Fire Nation.

This was followed by a guy named Jet, the play made it seem like he destroyed an entire village for Katara, which sounded a little farfetched even for me. I could never see Katara wanting a village destroyed for her, but I just let it go.

Next girl from the Northern Water Tribe who had white hair was shown. This girl and Sokka seemed to have fallen in love, then for some weird reason she became the moon spirit. The playwrights didn't do a good job of explaining this. Suki seemed to get a little jealous about this, even though she didn't want to admit it. Aang turned into a giant ocean spirit and destroyed a whole fleet of Fire nation boats. It was great!

That was the end of act one, and intermission was called. We all went outside and sat on a set of steps that led to a balcony.

"So far this intermission is the best part of the play," Zuko said interrupting the silence we'd all been sitting in.

"Apparently the playwright thinks I'm an idiot who tells bad jokes about meat all the time," Sokka said as he bit into a piece of jerky.

"Yea, you tell bad jokes about plenty of other things," Suki said teasingly.

"I know!" Sokka agreed exuberantly with his mouth full.

"At least the Sokka actor looks kind of like you," Aang said sounding frustrated. "That woman playing the avatar doesn't resemble me at all."

"I don't know," Toph said with a shrug. "You are more in touch with your feminine side than most guys."

"Relax Aang, their not accurate portrayals," Katara said with a wave of her hand. "It's not like I'm a preachy crybaby who can't resist giving speeches about hope all the time." Katara said, trying to be positive. When no one agreed with her she became a little frustrated.

"Yea, that's not you at all," Aang said a little disheartened, as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's all rather amusing," I said and looked at everyone. "The characters spin off of what you guys really do and say, the playwrights only emphasize the traits they think the public will enjoy." I said and smiled.

"You're only saying that because you don't have a character Lin," Katara said, she sounded a little jealous.

"Listen friends, it's obvious that the playwright did his research," Toph said. "I know it must hurt, but what you're seeing out there on that stage is the truth." She somewhat agreed with me, I'd just said it in a nicer way.

Shortly after that we were called back into the theater, we headed back inside to watch the rest of the show. Toph was excited because she was going to come in soon.

The curtain rose and portrayed a scene in the Earth Kingdom. The actor Aang flew around the theater and landed back on the stage. When she landed she said she couldn't find any earthbenders. Then a giant, muscular Toph rose from under a rock. When Toph realized she was being played by a man she started laughing. I started laughing too, along with the rest of the theater, it was utterly ridiculous. Actor Toph said he could see people by using a sonic blast, he screamed into the faces of the other actors. I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my cheeks. Toph and I were the only two laughing out of our group of friends.

Zuko and his Uncle split up. Next the audience was introduced to Zuko's sister Azula, who was cornered by Team Avatar, and Zuko and his Uncle. But she escaped from them all in a puff of smoke.

The next scene was of Ba Sing Se falling into the hands of the Fire Nation. It was boring. The entire scene consisted of a giant drill. Jet reappeared, but this time he was under some sort of mind control. It also looked like he died by a rock falling on top of him, but no one was really sure.

After that scene came another with only Zuko and Katara. They were stuck in a cavern filled with glowing crystals. Here Katara confessed to having feelings for Zuko. I bit my lip so I wouldn't do or say anything foolish. Even though he'd admitted that Katara wasn't his type, I couldn't understand why he would like me. When I saw them sit farther apart I was satisfied, I would forget about his real girlfriend Mai. I was shocked to learn in this scene that Aang had nearly died at the hands of Azula, but Katara brought him back by using the healing properties in the spirit water she'd been given at the Northern Water Tribe. After that the real Aang left. Zuko was also shown leaving his Uncle again, and joining his sister's side of the battle.

I was confused for Zuko, so many emotions he carried inside himself. For him to leave his Uncle and join his sister, he must have been so confused himself. I looked down at the back of his head and wished I could talk to him. He still seemed to hold so much within himself, I couldn't help but worry about what would happen to his state of mind if he continued to keep all of his emotions bottled up within him.

"It seems like every time there's a big battle you guys barely make it out alive," Suki said as we all rested in the hallway near our balcony seats. It was intermission again. Sokka and Suki were standing against the wall, Zuko was sitting up against the wall, and Toph was leaning against it with her arms folded over her chest. I was standing across from Zuko leaning against a railing.

"You're one to talk Suki," Sokka said condescendingly. "Didn't Azula take you captive? That's right she did," he aid smugly.

"Are you trying to get on my bad side?" Suki asked pouting.

"Does anyone know where Aang is?" Katara asked. She'd been leaning against the wall on the other side of Sokka, she'd been really quiet.

"He left about 10 minutes ago to get me fire gummies, and I'm still waiting," Sokka said impatiently.

"I'm going to check outside," Katara said, and then left to find Aang.

A little boy ran past dressed in an avatar costume, he was pretending to fly.

"Suki what are the chances you can get me backstage?" Sokka asked. "I've got some jokes I want to give the actor me," Sokka said hopefully.

"I'm an elite warrior who's trained for many years in the art of stealth," said a serious and foreboding Suki, then she smiled, "But I think I can get you in." With that the two of them left. So it was just Toph, Zuko and I.

"Gees, everyone is getting so upset about their characters," Toph said. "Even you seem more down than usual, and that's saying something," she said to Zuko.

"You don't get it, neither of you do," Zuko said with a hint of temper in his voice. "Lin doesn't even have a character, no one knows about her. You, you get a muscle version of yourself taking down 10 bad guys at once and making sassy remarks," He said, and then looked at me, then up at Toph.

"Yea that's pretty great," Toph said with a smile on her face.

"Just because I don't have a character doesn't mean I don't understand," I said, my own temper flaring slightly. It kind of hurt that no one knew about me. In a way, I wanted to have a character, even though I knew I'd be mocked.

"Well for me, it takes all the mistakes I've made in my life and shoves them back in my face," Zuko says hotly. "My Uncle, he's always been on my side when things were bad. He was there for me, he taught me so much, and how do I repay him?" he asks looking into my eyes. I can see the anguish and hurt that he holds inside himself.

"How?" I say softly, my face showing the concern I have for him.

"With a knife in his back," he says and looks away from me. "It's my greatest regret, and I may never get to redeem myself." He looked lost as he hid beneath the hood of his black cloak. I walked over and sat down next to him. Toph wouldn't see, so I cupped the side of his face and made him look at me.

"Zuko you're a great person," I said softly. "I think you're Uncle would be extremely proud of you." I leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips. I pulled away and looked into his eyes. For a moment his eyes seemed to shine, and then he closed them. I sighed leaning back up against the wall next to him. My hand lay between us and I was a little surprised when he reached over and laced our fingers together. I looked up and he was looking down at me. I could tell that this meant a lot to him. I gently squeezed his hand to show that I understood him. His golden eyes softened a little and he squeezed my hand back.

"You have redeemed yourself to your Uncle," Toph said. Breaking Zuko and I's intimate little moment. She sat down on Zuko's other side. "You don't realize it, but you already have."

"How do you know?" Zuko asked.

"I once had a long conversation with the guy, and all he could talk about was you," Toph said. Zuko slipped his hood off with the hand closest to Toph, his other hand was still intertwined with mine.

"Really?" he asked, almost in awe.

"Yea, it was kind of annoying." Toph said.

"Oh, sorry," Zuko said, he then went back to looking at the ground.

"But also very sweet," Toph said. "All your Uncle wanted was for you to find your own path and see the light. Now you're here with us, he'd be proud." I saw a small innocent smile form on Zuko's lips. Then Toph suddenly elbowed him in the arm. This flung Zuko towards me and caused me to fall onto the ground. Zuko half squashed me, but caught himself with his free hand. We looked at each other and I couldn't help but smile and let out a quiet giggle. He pushed himself up, then pulled me back up, but let out hands intertwined together.

"Ow, what was that for?" he asked looking over at Toph.

"That's how I show affection," she said with a smile. This caused me to laugh, Zuko looked at me and I smiled at him.

The little boy ran past again, only this time he stopped and saw Zuko's scar, for a second a chill gripped my heart, I thought he was going to recognize him.

"Your Zuko costume is pretty good," the boy said. "But your scar is on the wrong side." The boy then ran off again.

Zuko looked shocked, then angry, he clenched his fist and said, "The scar is NOT on the wrong side!" then he flipped his hood back up. Toph and I started laughing, I peeked under his hood and met his frowning features, his eyes looked like a solid gold.

"You know if you let go of your tough exterior and laughed a little you might feel better," I said and smiled at him.

"You laugh too much," was he cold reply. I smirked, it was true I did laugh a lot, but that's just who I am. I shook my head and leaned back up against the wall. I was startled when he squeezed my hand again. I squeezed back and looked up at him again out of the corner of my eye. He smirked at me causing me to smile.

Curtain call sounded, Zuko stood up and offered Toph and I each a hand. Toph headed into the balcony and I was behind her. Zuko pulled on my hand and trapped me up against the wall.

"Zuko what," I began but he pressed his lips to mine. I sighed into his embrace and kissed him back. We pulled apart and I looked to see if anyone had seen us, but his cloak seemed to hide us from the outside world.

"Thank you," he said and kissed me lightly on the lips again.

"No need to thank me," I said and shook my head ever so slightly. "I meant every word I said. But seriously, if you ever need to talk about your past or whatever is troubling you just let me know ok?"

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm just worried Zuko, you have so much on your shoulders right now, it's ok to talk about things." I said and frowned, I was probably going to push him away. My Dad never liked talking about his feelings. He and my Mom would get into fights over it.

He moved his hands down my arms and slipped his hands into mine. "We should get to our seats," he said and pulled away from me. I sighed and followed him as we made our way onto the balcony. I slipped my hand out of his and sat down in my seat next to Suki.

Aang came back and I heard Sokka tell him about everything he'd missed. The play started on the day of the invasion. I felt bad because the Katara actor said she only liked the Aang actor as a brother. I don't think the real Aang realized that the writers probably did this because both actors were women.

I learned that during the invasion they never met up with Fire Lord Ozi, and that was where Zuko decided to join the avatar. Sokka thought it would end there since that's where their lives sort of stopped…but the play wasn't over and continued, which surprised everyone.

Ozi appeared, using the power of Sozin's comet to destroy the Avatar. Zuko was with Aang and then they split up. Zuko went to try and defeat Azula, and Aang to left to find Ozi. They both battled and in the end both Aang and Zuko died. The saddest part was when Zuko's character died the entire auditorium started to applaud. These were his people, cheering at his death. I couldn't imagine the pain that caused him. I glanced down but couldn't see his face.

The scene switched to Aang's point of view, showing him as he battled Ozi. Aang was enveloped into a ring of fire and died. Then the play finally ended.

We all sat there stunned, of course the playwright would do this, it ensured loyalty to the Fire Lord. It worried me though, Aang seemed to think the play was real, and this sort of ending would only depress him.

As we walked home everyone voiced how bad the play was. Although Sokka thought the special effects were good. Once we got home everyone went to their rooms. I was still worried about Aang. So I quietly walked to his room and rapped on the door. He opened it and looked at me.

"Can I come in?" I asked, he moved out of the way and I walked in.

"Is everything ok?" he asked me.

"Yea, I just wanted to tell you something about the play," I said and looked down at him. "The ending has nothing to do with the real outcome of your future. The playwrights wrote it that way on purpose. They have to make their leader seem strong to ensure loyalty from his subjects," I said hoping that I was making sense. "I just didn't want you to get nervous and think that you'd fail, because you won't Aang, you will defeat the Fire Lord."

"Thanks Lin," he said and gave me a hug. "I hadn't thought about it like that."

"Plus, just for a little side note," I said smirking at him. "Both the actor Katara and actor Aang, were women…so the whole brother thing, was done on purpose." When I saw he didn't understand I raised my brows at him. I smiled as understanding flooded his face. "Don't worry Aang everything will work out. Well goodnight." I said and walked out of his room.

I walked quietly down the hall, but it was dark so at a few points it was hard to see.

"You past your room," Zuko said from behind me. I froze in the middle of the hall as my spine went ramrod straight.

"Zuko you just scared the crap out of me," I whispered and let out a sigh. I reached up and placed my hand on my chest, I could feel my heart racing.

"Why were you sneaking into Aang's room?" He asked and reached out for my hand, I placed my cooler hand into his warm grasp and he gently pulled me in the direction of my room.

"I wasn't sneaking," I said. "I was just telling him that the end of the play was written on purpose. The poor kid is so stressed right now, to have to see himself die on stage is not going to make him feel better." I said and looked up into his face as we stood outside of my room. "Thank you for leading me to my room," I noticed that in the darkness his eyes seemed to glow a molten gold.

"You were to sneaking," he said with a brow raised. "You waited till everyone had gone to bed to go talk to him."

"Jealous Zuko?" I asked with a laugh.

"No, I…" he stuttered.

I poked him in his stomach, "Don't be jealous it's Aang," I said and shook my head.

"You're one to talk, thinking I find Katara attractive," he said and placed one hand on the door next to my face, the other he put on my hip. The heat from his hand caused me to shiver, I'd forgotten that my midriff was exposed in this outfit.

"Hey I have a legitimate excuse, you could date her, Aang is way too young for me," I said and smile up into his face. Our lips were only a few inches apart.

"Doesn't matter," he said smiling down at me. For once he seemed totally at ease and enjoying himself. "What was I to think when I saw you walking down to his room and then slipping out a few minutes later?"

"You shouldn't have thought of anything you perve," I said smiling and pushed him in the chest. Although I didn't move my hand, it was as if a magnetic force was holding it there.

"Oh, really?" he asks as his eyes narrow down at me. "First you say you're worried about me and that I should talk to you about my feelings, now I'm a perve." He said with a raised brow. He sounded frustrated.

"I was teasing you about the perve thing," I said and reached up to cup the side of his face. "And I meant what I said, you haven't had an easy life Zuko, and I think part of the reason you keep yourself under so much control is because you're afraid to trust people. I really didn't mean to offend you." I said then sighed.

He sighed too, then placed his hand over mine, and held it closer to his cheek.

"I know you're only trying to help me," he said and closed his eyes. "You're right you know, I don't trust people, and the pain of holding everything in does get to me. I've never had someone who I could open up too, my Uncle was there but it was a matter of pride for me to hold my own and show that I was strong." He bent his head and placed his forehead against mine, I could tell he was sorting through his emotions.

"You were the first person to ever just trust in me," he said with a haggard voice. "Thanks for earlier," he said and opened his eyes. We just stared at each other. I felt my heart begin to race. "You know what to say just when I need to hear it, or squeeze my hand when I need just the smallest bit of reassuarance. No one has ever done that for me."

"I've had to learn to rely on myself, which is why I find it so hard to trust people. With you it's different. It's so easy to trust you. I feel like I can tell you anything and you're not going to judge me," he said and kissed my forehead. I felt a blush rise to my cheeks, and was glad the hall was dark.

"Zuko," I whispered.

"Shh," he said and slid the hand that was next to my face around the back of my neck. He pulled me against him and kissed me deeply. I felt butterflies in my stomach, he began kissing down my throat.

"Zuko," I said breathlessly. I didn't understand what he was doing to me. But it felt amazing. My skin was hyper sensitive, and I curled closer to his body. "What are you doing?"

"Showing you how I feel," he said and sucked on my earlobe. He pulled away and looked down at me. "I'm not good at expressing my feelings in words, so let me show you."

I nodded my head and he kissed me again. We didn't pull apart until we needed to breath.

"Stay with me," I whispered into his neck. I had no idea what had gotten into me, all I knew was that my body was tingling all over and I my limbs felt limp. He kissed my forehead and pushed my door open. I smiled and led him into my room.


	6. Heated Romance Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 – Sozin's Comet:**

I woke to the feeling of Zuko's fingers moving up and down my spine. I made a humming noise in my throat and curled into him. He chuckled and kissed the top of my head. I kissed the skin of his chest and loved how his muscles tensed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked as I looked up to meet his gaze. My body was slightly sore, but it wasn't too painful

"Rested, you?" I asked. He smiled at me, I liked the way it softened his face.

"Never been better," he said and kissed me.

When we pulled apart I looked out the window, the sun was already pretty high in the sky. "We should probably get up before any of the others realize we're missing," I said sadly.

His grip tightened for a moment, as if he didn't want to let me go. "Yea," he said. We got up and put our clothes on. Once we were dressed he pulled me against him and kissed me one more time. We walked down the hall holding hands as we headed towards the kitchen for breakfast.

Later that day Aang and Zuko were practicing their firebending, only this time we were all lounging on the front steps of the house. Zuko was putting Aang through his paces, trying to make him bend harder and faster, although Aang wasn't doing all that well.

"Who wants a nice glass of watermelon juice?" Katara asked happily as she came outside holding a pitcher and a tray of glasses.

"Oh, oh me!" Aang said as he ran towards Katara.

"Hey your lessons not over yet," Zuko shouted as he grabbed Aang by the back of his shirt and lifted him up. "Get back here!"

"Come on Zuko," Suki said. "Just take a break, what's the big deal?"

"Fine," Zuko said as he dropped Aang, who sprinted towards Katara and the juice. Zuko crossed his arms over his chest. "If you want to lounge around like a bunch of snail-sloths all day then go ahead." He shouted at all of us then walked away. I thought about going after him, but I liked lounging.

"Maybe Zuko's right, maybe sitting around the house has made us pretty lazy," Sokka said sadly. "But, I know just the thing to change that," he said and stood up, then striped to his under tunic, which he used as a swim suit. "Beach party!" he yelled excitedly.

We all laughed and raced down to the beach. I made an ice board and started surfing on the waves. Katara and I started racing, using our water bending to go faster or create waves. The wind in my hair and water on my face made me laugh and smile.

Then out of the corner of my eye I see blasts of orange, I look over my shoulder and see Zuko shooting fire at Aang as he runs away. I rush to shore at the same time Katara does.

"What happened?" she asks.

"Zuko's gone crazy! I made a sand sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it!" Sokka says as he tries to fix the sculpture. "Oh and he's attacking Aang." Katara and the rest of us run up to the house as fast as we can. This isn't good.

"Do you think he's betraying us?" I asked worriedly. If he was turning bad I didn't think I could ever forgive myself.

"No he said something about teaching Aang a lesson," Toph said, which made me feel loads better.

As we reach the house Zuko is thrown through an upper story wall and into a copse of trees. We run to where he's laying on the ground, everyone else stops to look up at Aang. I run over to Zuko and help him stand up. He'd had the wind knocked out of him. I blush as we look at each other, I offer him my hand and he takes it. When he's on his feet again he smiles faintly down at me.

"What's wrong with you, you could have hurt Aang," Katara shouted at him, I stood next to him as we faced everyone else, Aang jumped down into our midst.

"I'm sure he has a good reason for his actions Katara," I bite out.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with all of you? How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's Comet is only three days away?" he asks angrily.

I just stood there shocked, I had no idea a comet was coming. Everyone just looked at Zuko.

"Why are you all looking at me like I'm crazy?" he asks. I look between him and the group…going back and forth.

"About Sozin's Comet," Aang says and rubs the back of his neck. "I was actually going to wait to fight the Fire Lord till after it came."

"After?" Zuko asks astonished.

"I'm not ready. I need more time to master my firebending," Aang says as he looks up at Zuko.

"Frankly your earthbending could still use some work too," Toph says, Aang's face falls.

"So…you all knew Aang was going to wait?" Zuko asks, I shake my head no but I don't think he saw me.

"Honestly if Aang tries to fight the Fire Lord right now he's going to lose," Sokka says. "No offense."

"The whole point of fighting the Fire Lord before the comet was to stop the Fire Nation from winning the war," Katara says. "But they pretty much won the war when they took Ba Sing Se. Things can't get any worse."

"You're wrong," Zuko says, everyone looks at him shocked. "It's about to get worse than you can even imagine."

"The day before the eclipse my father asked me to attend an important war meeting," he says gruffly. "It was what I'd dreamed about and wanted for so many years, my father had finally accepted me back." he said turning away from everyone and looking at the trees. I could see his face better than anyone and I could tell he was still upset about losing his family. I moved closer to him, I wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but didn't think he'd want the rest of the group to see us.

He told us his father's plan to wipe out the earth kingdom like his Grandfather had wiped out the air nomads. He sat on a rock, not meeting anyone's gazes. I placed my hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed.

"I wanted to speak out against his horrifying plan, but I'm ashamed to say I didn't," he says sadly. "My whole life I struggled to gain my father's love and acceptance but once I had it I realized I'd lost myself getting there. I'd forgotten who I was."

"I can't believe this," Katara says as she kneels on the ground.

"I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy but, his plan is just pure evil," Sokka said as he pulled Suki close. I frowned, I wished I could have done that to Zuko, but I wasn't sure if he wanted everyone to know that we were more than just friends. Even though Suki and Katara could probably guess by now.

"What am I going to do?" Aang asks disheartened.

"I know you're scared and I know you're not ready to save the world, but if you don't defeat the Fire Lord before the comet comes there won't be a world to save anymore," Zuko says as he gets up off the rock and stands in front of Aang.

"Why didn't you tell me about your Dad's crazy plan sooner?" Aang asks angrily.

"I didn't think I had to," Zuko says back. "I assumed you were still going to fight him before the comet. No one told me you decided to wait," Zuko said yelling the last part.

"This is bad. This is really, really bad," Aang says as he walks away from us and falls to his knees with his head in his hands.

"Aang you don't have to do this alone," Katara says as she followed him, we all move to where Aang was on the ground. Zuko slipped his hand in mine and I looked up at him. He squeezed reassuringly and I smiled up at him.

"Yea, if we all fight the Fire Lord together we got a shot at taking him down," Toph said encouragingly.

"All right! Team Avatar is back!" Sokka said excitedly. "Air, Water, Earth, Fire, fan and sword!" he said pointing at us each respectively and then grabbing leaves that looked like a fan and a sword for him and Suki. His 'sword' wilted slightly and I giggled, Zuko just looked down at me questioningly.

"Fighting the Fire Lord is going to be the hardest thing we've done together but, I wouldn't want to do it any other way," Aang said as he stood up and faced all of us. Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph and I all gave him a huge hug. I looked up at Zuko who seemed a little confused.

"Come on, it's a group hug," I said and tug on our linked hands. He grimaced, but accepted, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me a little closer to him than Suki. Appa came flying out of nowhere and knocked us all over with his giant mouth, causing us all to laugh.

That afternoon Aang, Zuko, Katara and I stayed back while everyone else went to the market. Katara and I sat on the stairs in the courtyard as Zuko and Aang practiced their firebending.

"There's one technique you need to know before facing my father, how to redirect lightning," Zuko said all teacher-like. "If you let the energy in your own body flow the lightning will follow it," Zuko said as he demonstrated the movement, it was a lot like waterbending. "You turn your opponent's energy against them."

"That's like waterbending." Aang said excitedly.

"Exactly, my Uncle invented this technique himself while studying waterbenders," Zuko said, as he and Aang started practicing the motion in sync.

"So have you ever redirected lightning before?" Aang asked.

"Once," Zuko said. "Against my father."

"What did it feel like?" Aang asked enthralled.

"Exhilarating, but terrifying," he said stoically. "You feel so powerful holding that much energy in your body but, you know if you make the wrong move it's over," Zuko said as he looked away from me.

"Well not over, over," Aang said trying with a jerky laugh. "I mean there's always Katara and a little spirit water action am I right?" Aang said as he looked at Katara.

"Actually I used it all up after Azula shot you," she said sadly.

"Oh," Aang said as his shoulders slumped. Momo came up and sat in my lap, I started petting his back and he purred like a cat.

"You'll have to take the Fire Lord's life, before he can take yours," Zuko said seriously. He looked at me and slightly nodded with his head. I smiled and continued petting Momo. When Zuko saw I wasn't following him he turned on his heel and came over and sat next to me.

"Can Katara and I practice waterbending now?" I asked as the marsupial blinked up at me when I stopped petting him.

"Shouldn't you do that down on the beach?" he asked me, he picked at his boot.

Katara and Aang stood up and walked back into the house. I sighed, "I guess I'll go practice alone," I said and stood up. Momo jumped down and I dusted of my dark red pants. I'd found them in Zuko's Mom's old room.

"I can come with you," Zuko said softly. "You just watched me practice," he said and stood too.

"Ok," I said and I made my way over to the beach. I rolled my pants up and stood with my toes touching the wet sand. I moved into the rhythmic motions of waterbending and totally lost myself. After a little while I got a great idea.

"Zuko, why don't we spar?" I asked as I looked behind me to where he was sitting. He was staring at me, with a funny look in his eyes. "What?" I asked as I looked down at myself. I thought maybe there was a turtle-crab on my leg or something.

"Nothing, I was just watching," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Waterbending is a lot smoother than firebending, it's interesting to see the differences and the similarities in the two opposite elements," he said and looked up at me from the ground. He was sitting with his knees folded. I offered him a hand and he took it. He pulled me against him and snuck a kiss. I smiled when we pulled apart.

"So what do you say?" I asked him as I pulled out of his arms.

"You really want to spar?"

"I've only ever spared against your sister," I said.

"It's not like sparing against another waterbender," he said as leaned his forehead against mine. "I could really hurt you."

I sighed, I knew he was right. When he and Aang practiced they stood next to each other, they never shot fire at each other. "Alright, but come here!" I said as I pulled him towards the water. I stopped and he looked at me with a funny look. "You're going to want to take your boots off, at least your shirt is already off," I said with a smirk.

""What are you trying to do?" he asked as he slipped his boots off, he bent and rolled his pants up.

"You'll see," I say as I step into the water and make an iceboard, I step onto it and hold out my hand.

"You want me to get on that?" he asks doubtfully.

"Yes," I said and beckon him towards me. He sighs but places his hand in mine. When he's standing on the board I have him put his hands on my hips. Then I bended us across the surface of the water, we sailed over the waves getting some major air on the higher peaks. I let out a yell and laughed like crazy. I caught a really big wave and we soared through their air for at least a minute before we landed in a softer swell. Zuko let out a yell of his own and I smiled even wider, he was having fun.

I brought us back to the beach after a while and we were both laughing.

"That was great!" Zuko said with a huge smile on his face. He picked me up and twirled me around in a circle. I laughed then wrapped my arms around his neck, as he held me against him.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, it was pretty fun," I said and played with the ends of his shoulder length hair.

"That's the most fun I've had since I was a kid," Zuko said as he loosened his hold and I slid down his body.

I smiled up at him and kissed his chin, he kissed me on the lips and spun me around again.

"Can you keep a secret?" he asked me with a grin.

"Of course I can," I said playfully.

"I like holding you," he said and kissed me again. I laughed and said I liked being held by him. Then I heard the sound of Suki, Sokka and Toph.

"We better head back, they'll notice we're missing," I said he let me go but grabbed my hand. I smiled at the innocent gesture and we walked back to the house.

We met everyone in the central hall of the house. They were all gathered around Sokka, someone had given him the brilliant idea that we should practice a way to destroy the Fire Lord. We went outside and stood around a stick cloaked figure with a watermelon head.

"Gather round Team Avatar," Sokka called. "In order to take out the Fire Lord, or in this case the Melon Lord, our timing has to be perfect." Sokka said as he kneeled to the ground and started drawing a plan of attack.

"First Suki and I will draw his fire, and then Katara, Lin and Zuko will charge in with some liquidity hot offense and while the Melon Lord is distracted Aang swoops in from the right and BAM! He delivers the final blow," Sokka said while demonstrating. I looked up at Aang's face, it was somewhat frustrated.

"What about me?" Toph asked confused.

"For now you're the Melon Lord's forces," Sokka said.

"So I get to chuck flaming rocks at all of you?"

"Whatever makes the training feel more realistic," Sokka said and shrugged his shoulders. Something told me this was going to be an interesting training session.

"Sweetness," Toph said with a smile. I had a feeling she was going to enjoy being the Melon Lord's forces.

Everyone moved to their places, Katara and I were on either side of Zuko. We waited for Suki and Sokka to move first.

"Mwahahaha!" Toph laughed evilly from her spot in front of the Melon Lord, she was surrounded by flaming rocks.

"Lin stay behind me, Toph might actually hit you," Zuko said as he looked over his shoulder at me. I just looked at him with a furrowed brow.

"Zuko you're crazy," I said. "I can take care of myself, it's only Toph."

"She can fight as well as I can Zuko," Katara said as she looked at me. I smiled and looked back at Zuko. He was pinching the bridge of his nose. Instead of looking back at me he looked to where Sokka was for the signal.

Sokka motioned with his arm and we all advanced forward. Toph used her earthbending to create opponents out of the rocks. One of the flaming rocks was coming straight at me. I moved out of the way, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zuko take a step towards me. I shook my head and we continued advancing although he looked angry. He was going to get himself hurt by trying to protect me.

"Watch it Toph!" Sokka shouted, I looked back and saw that he'd almost been crushed by a flaming rock too.

"I am not Toph, I am Melon Lord! Mwahahaha!" Toph said again while laughing evilly. It was actually funny, at least to me. That is until a whole bunch of her rock soldiers surrounded Zuko, Katara and I. Katara and I started using our waterbending to slice through the rocks, Zuko used his firebending to blast them to smithereens.

"Now Aang!" Sokka shouted. Aang flew towards the Melon Lord and just as he was about to deliver the final blow he stopped.

"What are you waiting for? Take him out!" Zuko shouted, I placed a hand on his arm and he looked and me, I shook my head. Something was really bothering Aang.

"I can't," Aang said sadly, his shoulders drooped and he stood with his head down in front of the Melon Lord.

"What's wrong with you, if this was the real deal you'd be shot full of lightning right now," Sokka said. He'd moved up to where Aang stood and was now yelling at him. Zuko looked at me, I glared at him and crossed my arms over my chest.

"I'm sorry, but it just didn't feel right. I didn't feel like myself." Aang said in the same quiet voice.

Sokka just stared him down, then reached over his shoulder grabbed his black bladed sword and sliced through the Melon Lord's head. "There, that's how it's done," Sokka said menacingly. I couldn't see Aang's face, only his back, but I could tell that he winced.

Later that night we all sat on the steps of the courtyard eating dinner, Aang sat alone though. I watched him and felt horrible. He was being put under a lot of pressure. I went to go sit down next to him but Zuko gently placed his hand in the small of my back and steered me towards the stairs. When we were finished eating he laced our fingers together and held them next to his leg so no one could see. Suki and Katara knew that I liked him, to them it was probably obvious that things had progressed from a small crush.

"I have a surprise for everyone!" Katara said as she came outside, she was holding a rolled up piece of parchment.

"I knew it you did have a secret thing with Haru," Toph said excitedly. Katara just frowned. We all just looked at Toph and Katara with funny faces.

"Ah…no," Katara said with raised brows. "I was looking for cooking pots in the attic and I found this!" she said in a chippy little voice, the parchment unrolled and showed what looked to be a baby Zuko. "Look at baby Zuko! Isn't he cute?" she asked using a cooing little baby voice. We all started laughing. Zuko just looked at me, he wasn't laughing. "Oh lighten up I'm just teasing," Katara said when she noticed he was silent.

"That's not me, it's my father," he said. We all just stared at him, then back at the painting.

"But he looks so sweet and innocent," Suki said as she pointed to the painting.

"Well that sweet little kid grew up to be a monster, and the worst father in the history of fathers," he said and looked down to the ground, I squeezed his hand reassuringly and he looked up and met my gaze. His eyes softened, and he squeezed back though and I softly smiled.

"But he's still a human being," Aang said. We all looked over in shock. He'd been silent since training had stopped.

"You're going to defend him?" Zuko asked as he looked over at Aang.

"No, I agree with you," Aang said with a heavy tone. "Fire Lord Ozi is a horrible person and the world will probably be better without him but, there's got to be another way," Aang said as he stood and faced us.

"Like what?" Zuko asked getting agitated, even though he still held my hand.

"I don't know, maybe we can make some big pots of glue and then I could use gluebending to stick his arms and legs together so he can't bend anymore," Aang said hopefully, his face lighting up with the idea. I just shook my head, poor Aang.

"Yea then you can show him his baby pictures and all those happy memories will make him good again," Zuko said with false cheer in his voice. Suki and Sokka started giggling behind him, I pinched his hand and he looked down at me I glared at him.

"Do you really think that would work?" Aang asked full of hope.

"NO!" Zuko shouted at him, Aang's face fell and his disappointment was written all over his face.

"Zuko that was mean," I whispered so only he could hear. Aang started pacing in front of all of us.

"This goes against everything I learned from the monks," Aang said as he continued to pace. "I can't just go around wiping out people I don't like," Aang said in a disheartened manner.

"Sure you can you're the Avatar, if it's in the name of keeping balance I'm pretty sure the universe will forgive you," Sokka said. Aang was getting mad, his back had gone rigid and it was obvious that Sokka had pushed him too far.

Aang spun around and yelled, "This isn't a joke Sokka, none of you understands the position I'm in!"

"Aang we do understand, it's just…"Katara began but Aang interrupted her.

"Just what Katara? What?" He shouted at her.

"We're trying to help!" she shouted back.

"Then when you figure out a way for me to beat the Fire Lord without taking his life I'd love to hear it!" he shouted and stormed off.

"Aang don't walk away from this," Katara said as she moved to follow Aang. I pulled away from Zuko and grabbed Katara's shoulder. She looked at me questioningly I shook my head.

"Let him go Katara," I sad sadly. "He's confused, and at the moment he thinks we can't understand. He needs to figure this one out himself." Katara looked after him then sat back down on the stairs. I looked at all of them, none of us had the same upbringing, and Aang's was the most unusual.

"Have any of you thought of what he's going through?" I asked as I faced all of them. "Imagine being asleep for over a hundred years and waking up to find that everything you have ever known is gone. You're alone in this world; you have friends sure but inside you still feel a little apart from them just because you were raised in a different era," I said with a wave of my hands.

"Add into the picture you've been raised that killing any living creature is bad, and everyone you know is pressuring you to go against your beliefs. Wouldn't you be a little stressed out?" I asked them, not expecting an answer. "While living in the Western Air Temple I learned all about the traditions of the monks. The walls themselves told of the history of the air nomads. I believe Aang is truly conflicted and nothing any of us say will make this any easier for him."

Everyone just looked at me, they all had the same disappointed face, and I continued, "Pulling him along like that Zuko was a terrible way to mess with his mind, he really thought that he'd finally come up with a plan to destroy the Fire Lord," I said while looking at Zuko. He nodded his head in understanding.

I turned to Sokka next, "Sokka, making everything seem like a joke is funny most of the time and helps to relieve stress, but you pushed him over the top." Sokka bowed his head and looked away from me.

"I'm sorry if you think I'm being weird and over sensitive," I said addressing everyone. "But Aang is still young, and he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, we need to give him some space," I said and looked at Zuko, he wasn't looking at me and I shrugged my shoulders. "Well I'm off to bed, good night," I said and walked away towards my room.

There was silence from the people behind me. I just shook my head, hoping that what I'd said had made an impact on them. I understood that they wanted to train him to beat the Fire Lord, but to just push him until he snapped was wrong. As I neared my room I felt a hand on my shoulder, I turned and saw Aang's face.

"I overheard what you said," he said solemnly. "I just wanted to say thanks."

"You're welcome Aang," I said and gave him a hug. "Now why don't you go get some rest, you need it," I said, hoping I didn't sound too motherly. He nodded his head and walked down the hall, I watched until he rounded a corner and disappeared.

"How do you figure people out like that?" Zuko's voice came from the darkness. He turned around a different corner and walked towards me. I felt my stomach tighten and looked away from him.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You can figure people out just by watching them, and the way you think, you seem to put yourself in another person's life," he said questioningly.

"I don't know how to explain it," I said and shrugged my shoulders. "Since I was little I always tried to see a situation from everyone's point of view. I would literally just imagine myself in their situation." I said."Aang's is the hardest, and I don't think any of us can every truly see how much stress he's living under."

His finger tilted my chin up so I had to look into his eyes, they were darker than they usually were, and he stepped closer to me. He leaned his head down and softly brushed his lips over mine. I brought my arms up around his neck and tangled my fingers in his hair. He pulled away and I had to catch my breath. I looked away from him, having remembered the girl from the Boiling Rock, Mai. I hadn't thought of her at all, when we slept together it had been just he and I.

"Lin what's wrong?" he asked me, and pulled me against his chest, his arms had somehow wrapped around my waist without me realizing it. I rested my head against his chest, relishing the feeling of being held in his arms.

"I was thinking about Mai, and how she'd feel if she knew about you and me," I said sadly. I inhaled, memorizing the scent of him. At the moment he smelled like wood smoke and the outdoors, I liked it. "I know you said that your relationship with her is different, that it just felt right to be with her, but that doesn't change how she feels about you."

"Mai reminds me of the old me, I'm the real me when I'm with you," he said. "You make me feel whole, and happy. I'd forgotten what it's like to be happy," he said as he nuzzled the top of my head. I couldn't help but wonder if he was trying to memorize how I smelled too.

"When you see her again though, you'll still have those feelings for her," I said. He pulled just slightly away so that he could look into my face.

"No," he said passionately. "What I feel for you is so much more than anything I ever felt for her." I believed him. There was just something in his eyes that said he was telling the truth. I softly smiled, and so did he. I felt my heart melt in my chest.

"Well, I should get to bed, it's late and who knows what we're doing tomorrow," I said. I went to pull away but he tightened his grip around my waist, I looked up and he cupped the back of my neck and kissed me again. Only this time there was something more in the kiss and when we pulled away I wanted to stay in his arms. "Stay with me?" He asked in a whisper.

I smiled and kissed him again. "Of course," I said. He intertwined our fingers and led the way to his room.


	7. heated Romance Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The End…?**

Dawn came early the next morning, and all of us went outside into the courtyard where Sokka had Appa all tacked up.

"Ok that's everything," Sokka said from up on Appa's back.

"No it's not," Toph said from her seat on the edge of the fountain. "Where's Aang?" We all looked at each other with wide eyes, and then ran back into the house to search the rooms.

"Aang! Aang?" Zuko called.

"Come on lazy bones let's go!" Toph shouted as we reached the upper floor. We split it, Sokka, Suki and Katara went one way, Toph, Zuko and I went the other.

The rooms were all empty, we went out onto the deck and a small table had been set with candles and some fruit.

"He left his staff, that's so strange," Sokka said as he held up the staff.

"Aang's not in the house, let's check the beach," Zuko said as we all looked out towards the water.

"Look there's his footprints," Sokka said as he pointed off the courtyard. We all ran towards the edge of the water, where the prints ended. "The trail ends here," Sokka said as he pointed, then looked out over the water.

"So…he went for a midnight swim and never came back?" Suki asked.

"Maybe he was captured," Katara suggested nervously.

"I don't think so, there's no sign of a struggle," Sokka said seriously.

"I bet he ran away again," Toph said as she knelt down by the tracks.

"No way, he left behind his glider and Appa," Sokka said this as if he knew the answer.

"Then what do you think happened to him oh sleuthy one?" Toph asked.

"It's pretty obvious," Sokka said with a finger pointing towards the sky. "Aang mysteriously disappears before an important battle, he's definitely on a spirit world journey." I shook my head, sometimes Sokka's mannerisms made me crack up. But I had no idea Aang could travel in the spirit world.

"But if he was wouldn't his body still be here?" Zuko asked.

"Oh yea, I forgot about that part," Sokka said as the wind was blown out of his sails.

"Then he's got to be somewhere on Ember Island," Katara said as she looked at all of us. "Let's split up and look for him."

Toph lunched herself at Zuko and grabbed his arm. "I'm going with Zuko!" she said excitedly. His face turned bright red and his eyes got huge, I started laughing hysterically.

"What? Everyone else had a life changing field trip with Zuko. Now it's my turn," she said and smiled hugely, even going so far as to lean into his side. Zuko's face was priceless, I laughed even harder.

"Lin's coming with us though," I heard Zuko say through my hysterical laughter. "Then it's three and three." He said and looked up at me. He appeared blurry though, I was my eyes of the tears that had started to stream down my cheeks.

"What's so funny Lin?" Suki asked me.

"Zuko's face when Toph grabbed him like that!" I said and started laughing again. "He's still not used to the whole human affection thing." I looked over at him and he was glaring at me. I smirked at him then stuck out my tongue.

"Do you mind if I go with you Toph," I asked as I looked at her. "You do have a right to have your life changing field trip?"

She thought for a moment then smiled at me, "Nah I don't care if you come." I looked back up at Zuko and he looked relieved. So Suki and Katara headed into the city, Sokka flew around the island on Appa, and we stayed more towards the village. Toph started talking about her life.

"Then when I was nine I ran away again," she said. I'd been concentrating on the surrounding area and hadn't paid much attention to what she'd been saying.

"Uh-huh," Zuko said, he sounded bored.

"I know I shouldn't complain," she said with a sigh. "My parents gave me everything I ever asked for but, they never gave me the one thing I really wanted, their love," she said sadly. "You know what I mean?" she asked.

Zuko sighed then turned to Toph, "Look I know you had a rough childhood but we should really focus on finding Aang."

"This is the worst field trip ever," Toph said sadly as Zuko walked away from her.

"Toph I think he's just a little stressed," I said and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Now come on, what else we're you going to tell him?" I asked, she started talking again and we followed Zuko down the path leading back to the house.

When we got there Suki and Katara were sitting on the steps looking glum, we sat down too and waited for Sokka.

"Judging by the looks on your faces I'm guessing you guys didn't find Aang either," Sokka said as he sat on Appa's head. He jumps down and we all look up at him.

"No, it's like he just, disappeared," Zuko said sadly. He was sitting next to me, and slipped his hand into mine. I leaned a little closer to him so that our legs were touching. It was comforting to know I could lean on him for literal and figurative support. We were all sad that we couldn't find Aang.

"Hey wait a minute," Toph said as if she'd had an epiphany. "Has anyone noticed that Momo is missing too?" Toph asked as she sat up of the step she'd been laying on.

Sokka's eyes got huge, "Oh no I knew it was only a matter of time!" Sokka said dramatically, he jumped off the steps and opened Appa's mouth, "Appa ate Momo!" he started crawling inside the large bison's mouth, "Momo! I'm coming for you buddy."

"Sokka, Appa didn't eat Momo, he's probably with Aang," Katara said as she rested her head on her hand.

Sokka turned to look at his sister, the upper half of his body was still in Appa's mouth, "That's just what Appa wants you to think," he said and climbed into Appa's mouth, the bison shut it.

"Get out of the bison's mouth Sokka," Zuko said in a frustrated tone, Sokka's feet just wiggled under Appa's lip, it made me giggle. "We have a real problem here, Aang is nowhere to be found and the comet is only two days away," Zuko stood up, he was agitated.

"What should we do Zuko?" Katara asked nervously, I watched as Sokka slipped out of Appa's mouth in a puddle of drool. I started laughing hysterically.

"Lin this is no time to laugh!" Zuko said and looked at me. I raised a brow at him and stopped laughing. I didn't appreciate being yelled at.

"Sokka just slipped out of Appa's mouth in a puddle of drool!" I shouted back, although I had a smile on my face when I said it. They all looked back towards Appa and Sokka lifted his head up from his puddle of spit. Katara and Suki started to giggle

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and then looked at Katara. "I don't know what we should do," Zuko said, everyone had turned back to look up at Zuko. "Why are you all looking at me?"

"Well you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang," Katara said. Sokka stood up and started wiping himself off.

"Yea, if anyone's got experience hunting the Avatar it's you," Toph said. I started laughing again when Sokka slipped in the spit and fell to the ground, but I started coughing instead. I looked back up at Zuko, and he just dipped his head.

"Then let's go," he said, everyone stood up and made their way to Appa. Zuko offered me his hand, I took it. "I'm sorry I lost my temper and yelled at you," he said softly.

"It's ok," I said and squeezed his hand. "I shouldn't have laughed it was a very tense situation…but I mean you should have seen Sokka slip out of Appa's mouth it was hilarious." I said and giggled.

"Only you," he said and gave me a soft smile. I stood up on my toes and snuck him a quick kiss. Then we made our way to Appa, he was already saddled from earlier that morning. I climbed into the saddle and sat next to Suki, Zuko took the reins. Appa jumped into the sky and I noticed a huge difference, one side of the horizon was a dark reddish orange the other was a golden color.

"Zuko, I don't want to tell you how to do your job," Sokka said. "But why are we heading towards the Earth Kingdom? There's no way Aang is there."

"Just trust me." Zuko answered.

We traveled for hours, not stopping until we'd reached the giant landmass that signified the Earth Kingdom. The sun was high in the sky signaling it was the afternoon.

"And the reason why you brought us to a seedy Earth Kingdom tavern is what now?" Katara asked sarcastically.

"June," Zuko said and pointed a finger. It was directed towards a woman dressed in black, on her shoulder she had the tattoo of a bounty hunter.

"Oh yea," Sokka said in awe. "It's that weird bounty hunter with the giant mole."

"Mole?" Suki asked. "Her skin is flawless."

At the moment she was fighting with a few drunken men. She managed to knock them silly and not spill a bit of the tea she was drinking.

"No she has this giant mole creature she rides around on," Sokka said. I'd never heard of giant mole creatures. Although for some reason she looked familiar to me, sort of like my mother.

"A sheer'shu," Zuko said as he watched the woman. I elbowed him in the arm and he looked down at me. He smirked, and I knew that eventually he would pick on me for getting jealous.

"It's the only animal that can track Aang's scent anywhere in the world," he continued as he looked back at June. "It's the one shot we have of finding him." I crossed my arms over my chest, not liking the fact that he liked this older woman. I watched as she flung her cup of tea into the air as a man attacked her, she threw him across the room and caught her tea cup.

"Hey, I remember her, she helped you attack us," Sokka said raising his voice.

"Yup, back in the good old days," Zuko said and made his way over to the woman. She poured herself another cup of tea.

"Oh great it's Prince Pouty, where's your creepy Grandpa?" she asked as she looked up at all of us, her eyes landed on me and they widened ever so slightly. I raised my brow, not really knowing why she'd do that.

"He's my Uncle, and he's not here," Zuko said, I could imagine his eyes narrowing, but he was standing in front of me so I couldn't see.

"Lin?" June asked, my eyebrows raised and I pointed a finger at my chest.

"How do you know me?" I asked.

"Your mother was my younger sister," she said as she stood and walked over and gave me a hug. "I never thought I'd get to meet you, I only ever saw a small picture of you."

"You're my Aunt?" I asked shocked then I smiled. "Cool, sometime you'll have to teach me how to be a bounty hunter."

"Sure, you'll have to tell me about your parents," she said and smiled at me. She turned back to Zuko and smirked. "I see you worked things out with your girlfriend there Pouty."

"I'm not his girlfriend!" Katara shouted. At the same time Zuko shouted, "She's not my girlfriend!"

"Ok, Ok sheesh," she said as she raised her hands in surrender. "I was only teasing. So what do you want?" she asked, as she sat back down.

"I need your help finding the Avatar," Zuko said seriously.

"Hmm…doesn't sound too fun," June said and took a sip of her tea.

I saw Zuko's back tighten before he jumped on June, or rather towards her. "Does the end of the world sound like more fun?" he asked sarcastically.

She didn't say anything, just stood up again and headed towards the door, "I might as well help you, if only because you have my niece with you," she said and looked at me over her shoulder I smiled. She was a pretty cool Aunt.

Outside Appa and a rather interesting brown furred creature were staring at each other. "Nighla," June said as she waved a piece of raw meat in the air. The animal caught it in its mouth and swallowed it down. June walked over to it, "Who's my snuffly-wuffly?" she asked as she stroked the animals head.

Suddenly the creature opened its mouth and an odd looking tongue shot towards us. "Whoa careful there," June said as she stood up and looked at all of us. "Ok, so who has something with the Avatar's scent on it?" she asked as she beckoned someone over.

"I have Aang's staff," Katara said as she went up onto Appa's back and brought down his glider. She brought it over for Nighla to smell. The creature started sniffing around and began walking in circles then sat down and covered her nose with her paws.

"Well, what does that mean?" Zuko asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

June bent down and rubbed the sheer-shu's head. "It means your friends gone."

"We know he's gone that's why we're trying to find him," Toph said.

"No I mean he's gone, gone. He doesn't exist," June said as she looked at her animal then looked back at all of us.

"What do you mean Aang doesn't exist?" Sokka asked obnoxiously. "Do you mean he's, ya know…dead?"

"Nope we could find him if he were dead, wow it's a real head scratcher. See ya," she said turning to face the saddle on Nighla's back.

"Helpful, really helpful," Toph grumbled.

"Wait I have another idea, there's only one other person in this world who can help us face the Fire Lord," Zuko said as he bowed his head. "I'll be right back with a smell sample." He turned and walked over to his pack on top of Appa. He came back holding a very smelly sandal.

"You saved your Uncle's sweaty sandal?" Sokka asked. We were all covering our noses.

"I think it's kind of sweet," Toph said. She and Zuko were the only ones not holding their noses.

"Zuko that smells awful," I said. He looked up at me sheepishly.

June moved forward, she was now sitting on Nighla. "Let's do this."

We hurried onto Appa as the sheer-shu ran off into the forest, it was dark now. And flying under the stars was really cool.

We traveled for two nights and a day, until we made it to the very wall of Ba Sing Se. "We're going to Ba Sing Se?" Zuko asked from his seat on Appa's head.

"Your Uncle's somewhere beyond the wall, Nighla's getting twitchy so he can't be too far," June said from her seat on Nighla's back. "Good luck, and Lin, find me sometime and I'll teach you how to be a hunter. It's in your blood, he' ya," she said and Nighla ran off into the darkness. I looked after her until she disappeared. I would seriously have to find her someday. Not just to become a hunter, but to learn more about my family.

"It's been a long day," Zuko said as he turned to face all of us. "Let's camp and start our search again at dawn."

We all climbed down from the saddle and curled up against Appa somewhere. I found a comfy spot curled up against Appa and laid out my bedroll. Zuko laid his own bedroll out next to me, it was a cold night so having him nearby was nice. I was lightly sleeping when I felt him move closer to me, he curled himself around my back since I was lying on my side. He tenderly brushed a strand of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear. I turned and looked up at him, he smiled down at me and kissed me gently on the lips.

"I didn't mean to wake you," he whispered.

"You didn't," I said and turned over so that I was facing him. He lay back down and held his arms out. I snuggled against his chest and he wrapped his arms around me. He tucked his chin into the crook of my neck. The embrace was very intimate but it was also comforting, and part of me thought that Zuko needed this more than I did. We both fell asleep.

A loud roar filled the quiet night air and we were encircled in a wall of flame. We all stood up in haste, readying our individual weapons. Four men appeared on the crumbled rock wall, I had no idea who any of them were.

"Well, look who's here," a man with a crazy looking appearance said. He started laughing and snorting. I realized, thanks to the play we'd seen, that he was the Omashu King Boomie.

"What's going on?" Toph asked. "We're surrounded by old people."

"Not just any old people, these are great masters and friends of ours," Katara said as she walked closer to the four men. "Master Paku," She said and bowed.

"It is respectful to bow to an old master, but how about a hug for your new Grandfather?"

"That's so exciting!" Katara said as she threw her arms up into the air, Sokka practically screamed, and grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the man. "You and Grangran must be so happy to have found each other again."

"I made her a new betrothal necklace and everything," the man said proudly.

Sokka ran up and gave him a huge hug, "Welcome to the family Grampgramp." The man didn't look too pleased.

"You can still call just call me Paku. Now who's the girl behind you Katara?" he asked, turning his wise blue eyes on me. I felt myself blush, I could meet kids my own age but talking to other adults was completely different. Zuko touched the small of my back and nudged me forward. Katara grabbed my wrist and I smiled.

"Paku this is Lin, she's our cousin," Katara said and smiled.

"Hi," I said and smiled.

"Hello Lin, has Katara been teaching you well?" he asked me, I nodded my head and smiled.

"How about we call you Grand-Paku?" Sokka asked, still trying to call our new Grandfather grand something.

"No," Paku said. Katara and I laughed and pulled away from our new Grandfather.

"And this was Aang's first firebending teacher," Katara said as she pointed to an older man with spiky hair.

"Jongjong," the man said and bowed slightly to Zuko as he walked up to him. Sokka walked over to the youngest of the older men and bowed.

"Master Piendow," Sokka said reverently.

"Hello Sokka," Piendow said and bowed back to Sokka.

"So wait," Suki said sounding as confused as I felt. "How do you all know each other?"

"All old people know each other," Boomie said. "Don't you know that?"

"We're all part of the same ancient secret society, a group that transcends the divisions of the four nations," Piendow says.

"The Order of the White Lotus," Zuko said, I looked at him and he has a soft smile on his face.

"That's the one," King Boomie said, he was a rather hyper, crazy old man.

"The White Lotus has always been about philosophy, beauty, and truth," Jongjong said. "But about a month ago a call went out that we were needed for something important."

"It came from a Grand Lotus," Paku said as he looked at Zuko. "Your Uncle Iroh of the Fire Nation." I looked at Zuko, and saw his small smile widen.

"Well that's who we're looking for," Toph said excitedly.

"Then we'll take you to him," Piendow said.

"Wait…someone's missing from your group, someone very important," Boomie said as he looked at all of us in a scrutinizing manner. "Where's Momo?" he asked getting right up in Sokka's face.

"He's gone," Sokka said. He looked rather uncomfortable having Boomie so close to his face. "And so is Aang."

"Oh, well so long as they have each other I'm sure we have nothing to worry about…let's go!" Boomie said and turned back to the other four members. He shot into the air with a mad laugh.

"That man is something else," I whispered to Zuko with a smile, he looked down at me and nodded. He seemed tense as we walked towards the camp.

"So Boomie how'd you escape your imprisonment in Omashu anyway?" Sokka asked as we walked.

"Escape? I didn't escape, everybody else escaped," The Earth King said. "There I was, back in Omashu waiting for just the right moment," he said anticipatorily. "I didn't know what or when, but I knew I'd know it when I knew it, and an eclipse, that'll do it."

I caught Zuko's eye and shook my head he smiled and nodded at me. We agreed, King Boomie was completely insane. Boomie then went into detail about how the firebenders had no power and how he retook his city.

"Wow, you took back your whole city all by yourself?" Suki asked impressed.

"So what about you guys," Boomie asked as we continued walking. "Did you do anything interesting on the day of the eclipse?" I saw Zuko and Sokka look at each other.

"Nah," Zuko said.

"No not really," Sokka said with a shrug.

"Well here we are, welcome to old people camp," Boomie said as he earth bended a type of earthen door. A whole bunch of tents with small fires were set up.

Zuko looked around, "Where, where is he?" he asked quietly.

"Your Uncle's in there Prince Zuko," Piendow said as he pointed towards a tent. Zuko walked towards the tent and sat down outside of it. Katara started walking over to him but I stopped her. She looked at me and I whispered, "Let me help him." She smiled and nodded her head, then went to find Suki.

"Are you ok?" I asked him as I sat down on his other side.

"No, I'm not ok," he said with a lowered head. "My Uncle hates me, I know it." I reached out and placed my hand on top of his. He had his arms braced on his knees. It hurt me at how tense he was. "He loved me and supported me in every way he could, and I still turned against him. How can I even face him?" He asked as he looked at me with such confusion and heartache. I took his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Zuko, you're sorry for what you did right?"

"More sorry than I've been about anything in my entire life."

"Then he'll forgive you, he will," I said. He pulled me against him for a hug then stood and walked into the tent. I got up and went to find Katara and Toph, I'd sleep with them while Zuko talked to his Uncle.

"Uncle you're the only person other than the avatar who can defeat the Father Lord," Zuko said as we sat around the next morning eating breakfast.

"You mean the Fire Lord," Toph said as she pointed her chopsticks at Zuko. I snorted, and made it look like I coughed.

"That's what I just said," Zuko said testily. Toph just let it go.

Iroh let out a sigh.

"We need you to come with us," Zuko said vehemently.

"No Zuko, it won't turn out well," Iroh said sadly.

"You can beat him," Zuko said. He turned to all of us and added, "And we'll be there to help."

"Even if I did defeat Ozi, I don't know that I could, it would be the wrong way to end the war," Iroh said wisely. "History would see it as just more senseless violence, a brother killing a brother to grab power. The only way for this war to end peacefully, is for the avatar to defeat the Fire Lord."

"And then, then would you take your rightful place on the throne?" Zuko asked hopefully.

"No, someone new must take the throne, an idealist with a pure heart and unquestionable honor. It has to be you Prince Zuko," Iroh said solemnly. Zuko looked stunned.

"Unquestionable honor? But I've made so many mistakes," he said sorrowfully.

"Yes, you have," Iroh said bluntly. "You struggled, you suffered, but you have always followed your own path. You restored your own honor, and only you can restore the honor of the Fire Nation."

"I'll try Uncle," Zuko said seriously.

"Well what if Aang doesn't come back?" Toph asked.

"Sozin's comet is arriving and our destinies are upon us, Aang will face the Fire Lord," Iroh says and pauses. "When I was a boy I had a vision I would one day take Ba Sing Se, only now do I see that my destiny is to take it back from the Fire nation so the Earth Kingdom can be free again."

"That's why you gathered the members of the White Lotus," Suki said.

"Yes," Iroh said as he then looked at Zuko. "Zuko, you must return to the Fire nation so that when the Fire Lord falls you can assume the throne and restore peace and order. But Azula will be there waiting for you."

"I can handle Azula," Zuko said stubbornly.

"Not alone, you'll need help," Iroh said as he looked at his nephew. Zuko and I locked gazes, his brows tightened and he looked away from me.

"You're right," he said then looked at Katara. "Katara how would you like to help me put Azula in her place?" It hurt when he asked her and not me.

"It would be my pleasure," Katara said with an anticipatory face.

"What about us? What's our destiny today?" Sokka asked, I was wondering the same thing.

"What do you think it is?" Iroh asked him.

"I think that even though we don't know where Aang is, we need to do everything we can to stop that airship fleet," Sokka said as he pounded his fist.

"And that means when Aang does face the Fire Lord we'll be right there if he needs us," Toph said as she balled her own hands into fists.

We finished eating and then began packing. I would be going with Sokka, Suki and Toph since Zuko was taking Katara with him. As I was packing up my bedroll Zuko found me. We were alone in the tent I'd shared with Toph and Katara. They'd both finished packing before me.

"Lin," he began as he touched my shoulder. I shrugged him off and turned to face him.

"I know," I said as I faced him. "You don't want me to go with you because I'll be a distraction," I said testily. It wasn't hard to guess, if I had a family as crazy as he did I'd want to protect him from them too. I'd loved him since the first day I saw him, I just never told him because I wasn't sure how he'd react.

"It will never cease to amaze me that you know me so well, but that's not all of it," he said in an emotion filled voice. I looked up and met his gaze.

"Then what is it?" I asked hurt.

"My sister is ruthless," he said as he looked at me. "If I bring you with me and she tries to hurt you…I'll lose control and then not have a shot at beating her. I want you safe, and my sister…she's dangerous." He said as he reached a hand out to me. I sighed and took it. He pulled me against him and I curled into his chest.

"Katara has fought her before. She wants revenge on what she did to Aang. My sister pretty much killed the avatar. Had Katara not had spirit water Aang would have died," He said as he ran a hand down my back.

"I understand Zuko, I just…I just don't have to like it," I said and curled closer into him. He cupped the side of my face, gently getting me to look up at him.

"There's nothing going on between Katara and I, we're just friends, I…" he trailed off for a moment then his cheeks reddened. My eyes widened and I smiled up at him.

"You're blushing," I said and my smile turned into a smirk. He ran a hand through his hair and looked down at me, he was nervous.

"I…I don't know how to explain my feelings for you," he said very seriously. I waited patiently for him to continue as hoped swelled in my chest.

"If I lost you, I feel I wouldn't be the person I'm meant to be. If I lost you, my world would…it would fall apart," he said as he leaned his forehead against mine. "I've heard of love but I don't know what it feels like. But losing you would be worse than what it felt like to lose my Uncle. He's the only one who has ever had faith in me," he said as his eyes shimmered. I could tell he was holding a deep emotion within himself. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, his arms tightened around my waist and he held me flush against him. I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes.

"I love you Zuko," I said as we looked deeply into each other's eyes. "Now go beat your sister and come back to me," I said as I pulled away from him. I walked out of the tent carrying my stuff. I walked over to where Toph and Suki were sitting on top of a giant lizard. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Zuko touch his lips then walk towards Appa. I smiled.

Suki held out a hand and I jumped on behind her. "Nothing runs faster over land or swims quicker than a giant eelhound," said Piendow. "The airship base is on a small island just off the Earth kingdom shore. You should be able to intercept the fleet within a day's journey."

"Thank you master," Sokka said reverently. They bow to each other and Sokka gives him a hug. I look over at Zuko as he sits behind Appa's head. He gives me a longing glance then looks down at his Uncle.

"So if I'm going to be Fire Lord after the war is over," Zuko asked him curiously. "What are you going to do?"

"After I re-conquer Ba Sing Se, I'm going to re-conquer my tea shop," Iroh says as he flips a Pai Sho piece into the air. "And I'm going to play Pai Sho every day."

We say our goodbyes, I nod to Zuko then Sokka turns the eelhound towards the east and we're off.

We spend a day riding the eelhound to the airship base. We were able to watch the comet as it entered the earth's atmosphere. Suki even said that in a weird way it was beautiful, I agreed with her. We reached the island and got off the eelhound, I rubbed the creature's neck I couldn't help but think it was adorable.

We raced up a rather steep incline, when we got to the top we were able to see the fleet of airships.

"Oh no!" I say as the closest airship launches into the air.

"We're too late! They're already taking off!" Sokka says angrily.

"Then we're taking off too, where's the closest airship?" Toph says as she grabs Sokka and Suki, I grab onto her shoulder as she hoists us into the air. We shoot into the sky then begin to plummet to the ground, for a span of a second I feel completely weightless. I let go off Toph once I realized I could manage to land on a walking plank on the bottom of the airship. We climb up a flight of stairs and make our way to the captain's station. We waited outside while Toph metal bended and singlehandedly took out the entire captains quarters. It was amazing. Once all the soldiers were taken care of we walked into the control station.

"That's how it's done," Toph gloated.

"Good work Toph," said Sokka. "Time to take control of the ship, take the wheel," Sokka said while looking at Suki.

"That's a great idea, let the blind girl steer an airship," Toph said sarcastically.

"I was talking to Suki," Sokka said. Suki moved to the wheel.

"That would make a lot more sense," Toph said sounding a little embarrassed.

"What are we going to do about the rest of the crew?" Suki asked. I looked out over the edge of the window.

"If you bring us close enough to the water I can bend it up so we can drop them into the water and they won't die," I said.

"Yea, get us closer to the water, I've got an idea," Sokka said. He reached for the announcement microphone.

He deepened his voice and said, "Attention crew, this is your captain speaking, everyone please report to the bay immediately for hot cakes and sweet cream. We have a very special birthday today."

Suki brings us closer to the water and I bend some up so it's practically touching the bottom of the airship. Sokka switches a lever and out the crew goes. We speed up, trying to catch the Fire Lord's ship.

I watch as we approach land, and am startled to see the Fire Lord's ship goes down.

"What just happened?" Suki asks.

"It's Aang! He's back!" Sokka shouts and pumps his arms into the air. We watch as Aang does some crazy bending.

"Go Aang! Airbending slice!" Sokka yells.

"So what are we going to do to help him?" I ask.

"The Fire Lord is Aang's fight," Sokka says. "We need to stay focused on stopping that fleet from burning down the Earth Kingdom."

"And how do we do that Captain Boomerang, I can't see outside of this floating hunk of metal," Toph says.

"Air ship slice!" Sokka says like he's had a mental break through. Sokka takes control of the ship, steering it head on towards the other ships. The firebenders start burning the forest below, the entire world seems to turn orange in color.

"Whoa," Toph says from next to me. We'd both been standing by a window. "That's a lot of fire isn't it?" Toph asks.

"Yea, it is," I say sadly.

Sokka starts pulling all the controls and the ship starts to brake around us.

"It's going to be a rough ride. We need to get to the top of this fast," he says as he pulls Toph towards the stairs. Suki and I follow. Our air ship hits the first enemy ship, it's a crazy collision that feels almost like an earthquake. Our ship begins hitting the other ships as we make it to the top. We bust through the roof and start running across our ship. We're running towards the highest part which is the decorative front portion of the ship.

We make it but it begins to crumble, Sokka and Toph are on one half, Suki and I the other. We go flying into the air ship below us.

"Suki! Lin!" Sokka yells.

"We're ok, just finish the mission!" Suki yells. I twist to get up and something pains me in the side. I look down and see I'm bleeding. That can't be right, something's off. I look around, as if I'm no longer a part of what's going, instead I'm a viewer. The pain increases, I turn to look at Suki and see her and…me…jumping off the air ship, which is what really happened.

So how am I watching what happened? Why am I bleeding? The pain racks through my body again and I let out a scream. I feel myself falling and my vision goes black.


	8. Heated Romance Chapter 8

**Chapter 8- Remember**

"You're finally awake," a voice says seeming to float through my conscious. "Your fever finally broke," the voice says as I feel a warm hand lay on my forehead. "You're still shivering though, and you reopened your wound."

I feel fingers on my side and I try to open my eyes. Why is someone touching my side? And what wound?

Blurry orange and red is what my eyes first become adjusted too. I blink a few times and recognize the flicker of firelight on stretched canvas. Where am I? A masculine face appears above me, gold eyes, shaggy black hair, and a recognizable scar.

"Zuko?" I whisper in a hoarse voice.

"Easy, the worst is over, just sip this," he says, as he slowly sits me up in his arms. He brings a small cup to my lips. I sip warm jasmine tea, it slides down my throat, soothing the rough sensation my voice had caused. I went to pull away from his embrace, but he stops me.

"Easy, I'll help you lay back down," he lowers me back down, my side only slightly pulling, although it still makes me wince. "I'm going to have to change the bandage and put salve on it," he says as he looks down at me. "You were thrashing around when the fever broke, and managed to rip it open again," my eyes lock with his and for a moment I can't look away. I'm so confused with the whole situation, but I'm glad he's here.

I blush as I feel him start to gently tug at the bandages. It was then that I realized there was nothing covering my chest other than the bandage. I feel my face turn scarlet and I close my eyes. It doesn't matter that he's seen me naked. It was totally different when he was changing my bandages.

"Lin, why are you blushing?"

I open my eyes and he's laughing at me, "I, this…it…um…" I stuttered.

"I've seen you naked," he says gruffly.

I close my eyes again and distract myself by asking myself questions. How did I get hurt in the first place? We'd been about to land in the water…Aang was fighting the Fire Lord. I wasn't going to be able to help him like this, but he needed to be warned, I was just going to have to grin and bear it. He wipes my side down with a wet cloth, then quickly rewraps my upper torso.

I felt a warm body slide into the large bed roll with me. "What?" I croaked again and made to get out of the bag.

"You're shivering and your fever just broke," Zuko said as he put a hand on my chest restraining me. "You need to sweat the rest of the infection out," he whispers into my ear. I lay still, knowing that he's right, but not liking the fact that I have no choice in the matter. After a few minutes I feel gentle fingers brush the sweaty hair out of my face. Then I drift into a dreamless sleep.

I blink my eyes and see the red canvas of a tent in front of me. I'm still confused about where I am, how I'd gotten the damn wound….and I really need to pee. I went to move, but I slightly pulled my wound so I shifted back to the ground. That's when I noticed my back was warmer and that it was tingling slightly. There was also an arm draped over my hip, missing my wound. I wanted to take a closer look at it, to see where it was exactly. Something relatively hard was touching my lower back….and it was making me blush…now more than ever I wanted to get up.

"Zuko wake up…" I hiss. Instead and to my horror he starts nuzzling the crook of my neck. It sends shivers up and down my spine. I ground my teeth together. "Zuko wake up," I say louder, I have no idea who is around, or where we are. He kisses the underside of my jaw, and I have to fight from hitting him, we were still pretty much spooned together. He ground his hips causing a certain hard member of his to press into the groove of my spine. Heat races through my veins and I bit my lip.

"Zuko!" I shout. He wakes up and looks at me with blurry eyes, then smiles softly.

"You really are awake," he says groggily. Then realizes the intimate position we're in and moves away from me. "I thought I was dreaming, I've gone days without sleep," he says and sits up and runs a hand through his hair.

"I'm sorry, but I have to pee," I say as I again try to move, but pull my side so I again lay back down. "Do you always sleep next to me?" I ask curiously as I look at him. He was hovering over me. "I'm fine," I say as I recognize the concern in his eyes.

"Yea," he says and looks away from me. He reaches behind him and pulls out a cloth. He wipes the dried sweat off my face. "My body temperature tends to run higher than most people's, the extra warmth helped to keep you warm, and to rid the fever out of you."

I reach up a hand and cup his face. His eyes lock with mine and I smile at him, "Thank you," I say. I run my thumb over his cheek, and his eyes close. I sigh, "Where's everyone else, did Aang beat the Fire Lord?" I ask. My bladder begins to yell at me, feeling like it may just explode.

"Lin, it's been about five years since the comet," Zuko says as his eyes pop open "You were there. Do you not remember?" he asks me looking confused. How could I have forgotten five years worth of my life?

"Can I pee first," I say as I scrunch my face. "I promise after we'll talk about this," I say. He gets out of the bedroll and stands. He's only wearing a pair of loose pants. No shirt covers his nicely carved chest. He comes over and cradles me as he helps me up.

"Careful of your wound, I don't want you to tear it again."

He helps me to my feet, my legs feel weak and wobbly, and for a second my head spins. I grip his forearm then gain my balance.

"Zuko I can walk," I say and try to pull out of his arms, but he doesn't let go.

"You can barely stand," he says. If he wasn't preoccupied with me he'd have pinched the bridge of his nose. "Let's get you to the bathroom," he says as he continues to hold me. One arm is wrapped around my hip. The other is resting on the middle of my stomach. I put my right arm around his neck and we slowly make it out of the tent.

Once we're outside he brought me to a small hole located in the woods. I looked at it, then up at him, I really didn't want to squat over that…I didn't have the strength to do it myself. Which only could mean one thing…I had to go with him holding me.

"Lin, I've seen you naked," he said again sounding slightly exasperated.

"Yea but…. how did I go to the bathroom if I was unconscious with fever?" I ask him.

"You'd have moments where you'd be lucid, and I'd take you to the bathroom."

"Do I even want to know how you managed alone?"

"Probably not, it involved quite a lot of inappropriate touching." I looked over at him and he was blushing.

So we somehow managed to get me situated so that I could go to the bathroom. It was a rather embarrassing situation, but one that couldn't be changed. Once we got back to the tent he made me lie down again.

"Now what's the last thing you remember?" He asked me as he put some extra pillows behind my head so I was sitting up.

"I was with Sokka, Suki and Toph," I said as I looked at him. "Suki and I had just become separated from Sokka and Toph, we jumped off the airship so I could waterbend us to shore."

"That's it?" he asks his eyes widening.

"Yea," I say sadly. It wasn't my fault I couldn't remember anything.

"Well Aang took away my father's firebending, and I am now Fire Lord," he says as he looks at me. There's something different about him that I can't put my finger on. "Katara and Aang are dating and living on Air Temple Island. My Uncle is living in the Earth Kingdom running a tea shop."

"Your Uncle has a tea shop? What is Air Temple Island" I ask with my head cocked. The world really had changed.

"Yes, and Aang built the island after we completed Republic City," he said looking down at me. "Suki," he pauses a moment, as if he's choosing his words carefully. "She stayed with the Kyoshi warriors. Sokka visited Toph and her new school for a while, he later came back and helped Aang and I create Republic City, he in fact had something to do with the name."

I felt my mouth open in shock, how could I forget that much of my life? I wasn't even hit in the head. My wound was on my upper torso, on the left side of my ribcage, nothing was making sense.

"You really don't remember anything?"

"Do I look like I remember anything?" I snap as I look down. I shouldn't be upset with him, he'd saved my life most likely. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you," I say apologetically. "I'm just shocked."

"I know," he says and sighs.

"So now what?"

"We get you back to the Fire Nation so Katara can heal you."

"That's probably the best," I say and then it dawns on me. "Why am I in the middle of the woods? More importantly why are you in the middle of the woods?" He sighed and wouldn't meet my gaze, he was sighing more than I remember.

"You were probably on your way to Suki and Sokka's wedding," he says and hands me a piece of jerky. I take it. "I offered them to have it at the palace."

"Wow, I can't believe one of my best friends and my cousin's wedding even slip my mind," I say around the piece of jerky in my mouth.

"So what were you doing in the woods?" I ask again. It's a little surprising that he wasn't already at the palace. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you weren't there."

"I was visiting my Uncle," he says and looks away from me. Something is seriously wrong. He seems either tense or upset that I'm awake. He's not the same Zuko as I remember.

"Zuko," I say and reach out for his hand. I grip it and he looks up at me. "What's wrong?"

He looks at me for a long moment and then looks away from me. "Well…I, I think some things are better left unsaid."

That definitely through me for a loop, "What do you mean things are better left unsaid?" I ask. Last I literally remember he had said without me his life wouldn't be the same.

"We're close to the Fire Nation," he says changing the subject. "We need to get back as fast as we can. Your wound was starting to fester. I only have it wrapped," he says. "And one more thing, you and I need to talk."

"About what?" I ask becoming annoyed. "Right now would be the perfect time to talk," I say as I glare at him. It's irritating that I can't remember the past five years of my life. Did something happen between us? And if so, why won't he tell me about it?

"Never mind, just go back to sleep," he says as he starts to rise. "You're still really weak and we have to leave once I've packed." He stands and leaves the tent.

"Zuko this won't solve anything," I yell after him. "And I'm not going to sleep like a child!" I get no response and after a few minutes I realize he's gone somewhere. That's when I realize I'm actually really tired. I frown and cross my hands over my chest. There is no way I'll let myself fall asleep with these unanswered questions. I yawn. All too soon I'm sleeping.

_It was the day Zuko was going to be crowned Fire Lord, I walked towards his room with my arm in a sling. I'd hurt it during the air ship wars with Sokka, Suki, and Toph. I knocked on his door. He was standing in the room dressing, his ribs bandaged. Katara had filled me in on the fact that he'd risked his own life to save hers._

"_Lin," he said and smiles at me. "Come in," he said and turned around, he winced as he tried to put his other arm in the sleeve. I walked in and helped him, not even bothering to ask if he needs my help. He'd just say he's fine._

"_I heard what you did for Katara," I said as I tied his robe closed. He smiled at me which was an answer in itself._

"_Thank you," he said and pulled me close, although not too close. He was still sore around his middle. He'd almost died when Azula shot the lighting at Katara, he'd just barely redirected it, at least that's what Katara said. "What did Katara tell you?" he asked as he held me away from him. _

"_She told me you stepped in front of her when Azula shot lighting at her," I say and kiss his chin. "She also said that you almost didn't redirect the lighting, you could have died."_

_He sighs and rests his forehead against mine, "I know, but I'm ok, we're both ok," he said and ran a hand down my back. I was so glad that we'd both come out of this alive, injured, but alive. "She'd have done the same for me." he said. "What are you going to do now that the war is over?"_

"_I don't know," I said as I wrapped my arms loosely around his middle. "It feels so weird now that I'm not living in the Air Temple. I might go visit the Water Tribe and meet my family," I said and looked up into his eyes, hoping that he'd ask me to stay with him. _

"_Lin, I was…" he brought his hand up to the side of my face, and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Well, I was thinking that maybe you could stay here." He offered. He had a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks._

"_I'll stay." I said and he lowered his head to kiss me._

I was shaken awake. Zuko's face seemed a little worried. "I was afraid you'd slipped into unconsciousness again."

"Sorry I was dreaming," I say, I sit up and he again helps me to stand. He has me sit on the ground outside while he packs up the bedroll and the tent itself. There are two ostrich-horses tethered to a pair of trees. One was obviously the pack animal; it was covered in all of our gear. The other was garbed in a saddle and bridle. I watch as Zuko ties the tent and the bedroll to the pack animal. Then he walks towards me.

"Zuko, I really appreciate you doing all of this for me."

"Lin," he said in a very soft voice. He looks like he is going to say something important, but all he says is, "All I want is for you to be happy."

"What happened Zuko, please tell me," I plead as he pulls me to my feet and we make our way to the ostrich-horse. He lifts me up into the saddle and then climbs on behind me.

"Have you remembered anything yet?"

"Yes," I say earnestly, thinking that might help. "You asked me to stay with you the day you were crowned Fire Lord." We slowly made our way down a winding dirt path, the ostrich-horse walking somewhat smooth enough that I don't pull on my side.

He doesn't say anything. I was trying to keep my back straight without touching him, I didn't want him to think I was a weakling. "Good," he says. I raise my eyebrow and wish that I could turn around, but I know if I try I'll hurt myself.

"That's all you're going to say?"

"There's nothing else to say," he says sounding somewhat frustrated himself. He stops the ostrich-horse, "Please lean back against me; it'll lessen the pain in your side." I do as he says then lapse into silence. If he was going to be stubborn about this then I would be just as stubborn.

A while later we stopped to set up camp. Zuko didn't want to travel far and strain my wound. I felt awful that I couldn't help him and could only sit on the ground. When he was finished setting up he came and got me, I didn't look at him, I was ashamed.

"What's wrong, is your wound ok?" he asks me worriedly. I nod my head, and try again to walk but he won't let me.

"I just feel awful that I can't help you," I say as I lean into him, you'd think that since it was my upper torso I would be able to walk, but for some reason I was still weak. "I just sit here, and let you take care of me."

"Lin you were unconscious for a few days," he says as he slowly walk towards the tent. "Your body isn't as strong, you'll only hurt yourself. Just let me take care of you," he says as we inside.

"Fine," I say, although I notice that he's still not his usual self. Or at least what I remember his usual self to be like. "Zuko please tell me what happened between us, was it bad?" I ask.

"Eventually you'll remember everything," he says, I can't tell if he is sad or angry about this. He sets me gently on the bed roll, and then takes off my shoes.

"I could have done that," I protest.

"I've gotten so used to doing it," he says then stands up and removes his own shoes. We'd stopped for a bathroom brake and for a piece of jerky a ways back. I was more tired than I'd like to admit, and was glad to be in the ten. I watch as he turns off the fire lanterns before getting into the bed roll. I sigh. When I was on the verge of sleep I felt him wrap me gently in his arms, making sure not to go near the tender skin of my wound. "Know this Lin," he says ever so quietly. "I've been crazy without you."

I was so close to sleep that I thought I'd dreamt that last part.

_I was sitting near the pond feeding the turtle-ducks. It had been a week since the coronation and Zuko and I were still really close. I smiled as the two ducklings snapped up the bread I'd been throwing to them. _

"_Hey," Mai said from behind me. I looked up and smiled at her, since the invasion we'd started talking, but she still didn't like me._

"_Hey," I said and tossed the turtle-ducks some more bread._

"_I just thought I'd be the first to tell you, Zuko and I are betrothed," she said as she looked at her cuticles. "We have been since we were little, I'd like for you to stay away from him." _

_I looked up at her, I was shocked. Zuko hadn't seen Mai the whole time we'd been back in the palace. In fact this was the first time I'd seen her since we'd come back from the Earth Kingdom. _

"_I'll ask him about it," I said and turned back to the turtle-ducks. _

"_He thought you'd say that so he asked me to give you this," she said and handed me a scroll of parchment. I looked at it but took it. "Just as a warning, if you go near him, I'll have you thrown on the next ship and taken to the Western Air temple," she said in her monotone voice. I just looked at her. I was not going to follow her orders obviously. _

"_Of course Mai, whatever you say."_

"_Good, we understand each other," she said and smiled, then walked away. I watched her retreating form. _

I woke up, I'd pulled my side in my sleep. I looked around the inside of the tent. More of my memory was coming back. I'm no longer sure I want to know what happens next. I listen to the soothing sounds of the crickets and Zuko's breathing. I concentrate on the soft in and out, and am slowly lulled back to sleep.

_I finished feeding the turtle-ducks and walked back to my room. Once I got there I sat down at my desk and unrolled Zuko's letter._

Lin, I know that I promised you a lot of things while we were together, but things have changed. I'm betrothed to Mai now, and I must honor that contract. She'll also be an asset to me as I regain the honor of the Fire Nation. She grew up in a wealthy family and was raised in a way that prepares her to help me rule. You are first a Water Tribe citizen, and have no background in the political or social aspects of royal living. I'm sure you understand, this is a large task that I'm taking on. I don't want to ruin my chances by marrying the wrong woman.

Sincerely, Zuko

_I was stunned. How could he just toss me out? I felt tears well in my eyes, I dropped the scroll onto the desk and placed my head in my hands. What was I going to do? I obviously couldn't stay here any longer. I wouldn't embarrass myself by living under his roof while he and Mai made a life for themselves. Although, before I left I wanted to let him know what I thought of his decision. I wiped my eyes and walked towards the hidden door that would lead me to Zuko's private rooms._

_I walked stealthily through the secret tunnels Zuko had, had made that attached our two rooms. He'd said he wanted to be able to see me whenever he wanted. I hadn't told him I was coming, but I knew that he'd be there. I needed to ask him about this betrothal, and why he'd never mentioned it before. I also wanted to hear his reasoning behind his letter. It annoyed me that he would end things through parchment rather than face to face. I had my hand raised to pull the hidden doorway when I heard voices from the other side._

_Zuko's distinct voice sounded angry, "You told her what?"_

"_The truth she needed to know," came Mai's smooth voice._

"_I was going to tell her, she wasn't ready to know yet. How could you?" he asked her._

"_I love you Zuko, and she was in the way of us."_

"_Mai, what we have…"_

_Those words imprinted themselves on my brain, what we have. I stepped away from the door as my hand flew to my mouth. It felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest. He loved her, I should have known, he'd always loved her. He'd just used me. I was there, willing, while she'd been in prison. I took another step away from the door, then turned and flew down the hall, the tears streaming down my cheeks._

_Everything made sense now, the secret passages; meeting in private…he'd only wanted me as his mistress. The letter was his way of ending things neatly. He probably didn't want to deal with my emotions. _

I woke up. I couldn't take the memories anymore, I fully remembered. I'd left the Fire Nation that night. I didn't leave him a note or anything. It was still early after sunset so I made sure to stop in and say goodbye to the gang, although Toph had already left for the Earth Kingdom. I told Katara everything, and then explained I was going to go visit the Southern Water tribe to visit the family I hadn't seen in years. I also told her to tell Zuko, if he came looking for me, that I'd gone adventuring. She asked me what she should say if he wanted to follow me. I told her to tell him I didn't want to see him anymore. He should know what he did. Sokka knew something was wrong and so gave me Hawkie to use to stay in touch.

So I went and saw my family, then traveled like I'd always wanted. I visited Iroh in Ba Sing Se. I walked in and the man knew something was wrong. So I spilled my guts to him, he couldn't believe Zuko would do that to me, and in fact said that Zuko was wrong in his choice. He believed that I would make a better queen than Mai. We laughed and I asked him to not tell Zuko he'd seen me. He understood and even apologized for his nephew's actions, he surprised me by saying he would have loved to have me in his family. It made me tear up.

I left after a few days and went in search of my Aunt June in the Earth Kingdom. I've been with her for the past five years. She taught me her ways and I became a bounty hunter. I'd changed during the last five years. I was no longer the innocent girl I was when I'd first joined the Avatar. I was still my fun loving self, but I was more aware of the harshness of reality.

I then headed back towards the Fire Nation, Sokka and Suki were planning a wedding, and Suki wanted me to be her maid of honor. I'd accepted of course, but wasn't completely thrilled when I learned they were getting married in the Fire Nation. Zuko offered them the palace.

That was the only time Katara ever mentioned Zuko's name in a letter. It'd been a mutual understanding that he never be mentioned in our letters. I'd told her everything, and she'd agreed, although she stayed with Aang and was still nice to Zuko. She was his friend too, and I understood that.

I'd been ambushed, I remembered that too. I'd been on the road riding on one of the ostrich-horses, and I'd been ambushed. It wasn't unusual, not everyone knew that the Fire Nation was now peaceful and there were those that still wanted the Fire nation to rule the world. It didn't help that I'd been wearing my Fire Nation attire. It'd been an arrow that pierced my side, and they'd left me for dead. I'd pulled the arrow out myself, and tired to keep the wound clean and still move towards my destination, but I must have passed out on the road or something.

I sniff. The man who I'd forced myself to hate was taking care of me. I look over at his still form. He was lying on his side. He'd been curled around me again. I try to ease my breathing, I must have been crying in my sleep. There were dried tears on my cheeks, and the bundle of cloth that served as my pillow was wet.

I grimace. I was going to have to continue traveling with him. I was still too weak to travel alone. I glance down at him again, and his golden gaze locks with mine. I look away; I felt the blankets move as he sat up.

"Lin…"he whispered into the darkness. I felt his hand touch my back.

"Know this," I say harshly as I refuse to look at him. "I tolerate you because I have to. When the wedding is over, and my wound healed, you can rest easy that I'm fine and well," I say this coldly, and then turn my pillow over so it is dry, then lay back down. No matter how much control I thought I had, the tears managed to silently stream down my cheeks. I felt him lay back down with his back to me. Eventually, even though I thought it nearly impossible, I fell asleep.


	9. Heated Romance Chapter 9

**Chapter 9– Arrival: **

"_You're really going to make me sit all the way down here?" I shouted as I sat at the end of the dinner table in the palace dining hall. Zuko was grinning at me, so I knew he was enjoy this little game we were playing. _

"_This is how I ate dinner every day since I was banished," he shouted back at me. _

_It was one of those moments where I didn't know whether to make a joke or run and give him a hug. Since we'd been back he'd opened up a little more about his past, he'd explained how his father had given him his scar. I hurt for the young boy he'd been, but he'd risen above everything, and would make a great leader. _

"_Well," I said as I stood up and grabbed the plate one of the servants had set in front of me. "I ate dinner with my family, around a small table where our elbows brushed. This just won't do," I yelled back with a laugh. My voice resonated against the high vaulted ceilings and echoed through the hall. "I'm sitting next to you whether you like it or not." I placed my plate down at the seat adjacent to his and he smiled and took my hand as I sat down he squeezed it and held it until I needed to use it to put my napkin on my lap. It was one of the manners my mother had taught me even in the wilds of the Western Air Temple._

"_I'm glad," he said with eyes the color of molten gold. "Having these intimate dinners with you makes me feel whole. Like I could someday…" he stopped talking and I looked up at him. Our eyes connected and he had a small smile on his face. "Have a family that loved each other." _

_I felt my heart melt at his words, I reached across the table and squeezed his hand. We sat there holding hands and eating dinner._

_As I took a bite of the roasted komodo-chicken I noticed one of the serving men were glaring at me. I tried to ignore it but it was making me uncomfortable. I didn't want to bother Zuko with it so I continued our senseless banter. _

"_We should go ice boarding later today," he said as he took a sip of the tea he was drinking. "I love watching you waterbend."_

_I smiled and went to take a sip of my own tea but a loud crash spooked me and I dumped it all over the table. I looked behind me and the serving man who had been glaring at me had dropped his tray of food._

"_I'm not that hungry Zuko, why don't we go for a walk?" I asked as the man glared at me as he picked up the spilled food._

"_Lin what's wrong?" he said as he intertwined our fingers. I didn't want to meet his gaze, I was ashamed that this man was making me so uncomfortable. "Hey, you can tell me," he said reassuringly. _

_I looked into his eyes and frowned, "The man who just dropped the try has been staring daggers at me this whole time. When you mentioned I was a waterbender he dropped his tray."_

"_So you had noticed," he said sadly. "I thought it was just me. Let me ask him what his problem is."_

"_Zuko no, it's nothing, I shouldn't let something like that bother me." I said as he stood and began to walk over to the man. I grabbed his sleeve. "Zuko." He stopped and looked down at me, and for a moment I thought that he was just going to leave it alone._

"_Why do you disrespect your Fire Lord's companion by staring at her and making her feel uncomfortable?" _

_The man stood and put his hand behind his back and looked directly at Zuko. "This woman disgraces these ancient halls with her presence. No waterbender should be dinning in the palace of the Fire Lord, or acting so familiar with him."_

_I was hurt. I knew that my presence in Zuko's palace was a topic of gossip, it was obvious that many disliked that their new Fire Lord was not courting a girl of the Fire Nation. But the blatant hatred in this man's eyes was disconcerting._

"_My actions are mine alone," Zuko said angrily. "This woman, who has only ever been kind to you, does not deserve your harsh treatment. You're dismissed."_

_The man walked out of the hall, and Zuko turned back to me. He urged me to my feet then pulled me in for a tight embrace. _

"_Do not let their treatment defile what we have, I will let none harm you."_

I woke up early the next morning, feeling a little unsettled. I hadn't thought about that day in Zuko's palace in a long time. For a moment I felt guilty for being angry with him, but then the fact that he chose Mai came back with a vengeance.

Zuko handed me some jerky and we sat in silence as we ate it. I wouldn't meet his gaze even though I could tell he wanted to talk to me. I wasn't sure what to say, except for the hateful hurt felt words that had burned a hole in my gut for the past five years. The anger had finally returned, but I was curious about why he'd been out in the woods in the first place.

"I'll start packing up camp," he said as he stood. "We'll be on the road soon."

I nodded my head and looked down. I was probably acting childish but how else was I supposed to act? He'd ripped out my heart and stomped on it. I'd had to pick up the pieces and re-fined myself.

For the most part we travel in silence. I leaned against him out of necessity rather than actually wanting to. I hissed as the ostrich-horse stumbled, it was getting dark and we'd been traveling all day. The sun was setting and the animal was tired, especially from carrying a double load.

"We better stop and make camp," Zuko said. He slid off the back of the ostrichhorse and waited for me. I slowly turned and then slid off the animal's back so I didn't pull my side. He caught me under the arms and helped me land on the ground less jarringly.

"Would you like me to help?" I asked. I hated feeling useless. Even though I was angry with him, I wanted to pull my weight. It wasn't fair to make him do everything.

"No, you're wound is still too fresh," he said as he helped me lean up against a nearby tree. "Just relax here while I set up."

I nodded and made myself comfortable against the tree. I was being mean while he was still being civil. I rolled my eyes; it seemed that being a bounty hunter had hardened me more than I thought it had. Of course it was an easy way for me to keep the distance between us.

I sullenly watched as he set up the tent and put the bed roll inside along with the lantern. I sighed, I had to pee, and I doubted that he'd let me go alone. I was feeling somewhat better, I figured since he was preoccupied, I'd try to sneak off on my own. If I could prove to him I wasn't as wounded as he thought maybe he'd let me share some of the load.

I used the tree to help me stand, for a moment I saw stars as the pain racked through my body, but after a few minutes I was able to stand. I wanted to give myself a pat-on-the-back for not crying out at all. It was frustrating how much the wound hurt to even move. I heard Zuko coming out of the tent and looked at him from over my shoulder. If I acted like I was fine, maybe he'd buy it.

I caught a glimpse of him looking at me from the entry of the tent. His shaggy black hair fell across his face, and for a moment I felt my stomach tighten. I looked away before he could catch me staring. I still couldn't seem to control my feelings for him. I ground my teeth together, after everything he'd done I still felt something for him.

"Zuko, I need to go to the bathroom, you stay here," I said over my shoulder. "I think I can manage alone."

I slowly tried to walk but it doesn't work out as well as I'd planed. Instead I took about six steps, stumbled over a tree root, moved to catch myself and end up pulling on my side. I felt myself falling but strong arms enveloped me from behind and I see the ground mere inches from my nose.

Zuko pulled me upright, spun my around without hurting me and pulled me against his chest. This close I could smell his familiar scent. I closed my eyes, and for the first time in five years felt something inside of me relax. But then I remembered what had just happened and hating that my body was so weak.

"Please let me go," I said softly into the fabric of his red tunic.

"You aren't well enough to do things on your own," he said in a growl. "I understand you're a very independent person and you despise me, but for your own sake you must let me help you," he said against the top of my head.

I just nodded against his chest. He led me a ways into the forest and helped me go to the bathroom. At least now that I was conscious he didn't have to do everything.

"Thanks," I said as he helped me to stand up. For the first time I realized he was no longer the semi-muscular teen that I'd fallen in love with. His biceps bulged as he helped pull me to my feet and then balanced me once I was standing. Had I changed without realizing it?

"You're welcome," he said as he let me go, he made sure to stand close enough thought that if I needed him he could help. "We better get back. Being this close to the Fire Nation doesn't mean we're safe. There are a few rebel cells out there that would still like me dead and to put my father back on the throne."

"I've already met a few," I said sarcastically as we walked.

By the time we got back to the tent dusk had already settled in. We walked into the tent and I carefully sat down with Zuko's help He had me lean up against a small stool so that I didn't have to strain my abdomen muscles trying to sit up. He took out more jerky and handed me a piece. I ate it slowly, pondering over everything that had happened. But what I was the most curious about was why he was out in the woods. I wanted to ask him about it, but at the same time there was a tension in the air that I wasn't sure how to deal with. I would forever be in his debt for finding me, and I would someday have to repay him, but my curiosity got the better of me.

"Zuko," he looked up at me, he'd been staring at the floor. His golden gaze met mine and I again felt all the old attraction punch me in the gut. I cleared my throat, I couldn't let those emotions surface. "What were you doing in the middle of the woods?"

He swallowed, "I was returning from a visit with my Uncle," he said without any emotion. He seemed cold now, without having to worry about me hurting myself it seemed he disliked talking to me just as much as I disliked talking to him. Which was absurd, he was the one that wanted me to leave.

"How is he?" I asked. I'd gone to visit Iroh a few times while I was living with my Aunt June.

"Fine," he said sounding irritated. It wasn't until he pinched the bridge of his nose that I realized I'd irritated him somehow.

"Is that how you found me?"

"Yeah, I was returning to the Fire Nation when I came across your body on the side of a road. I honestly thought you were dead."

"I encountered a few of your rebels on the road. They weren't too keen on letting some foreigner pass through their woods. I think their words were the traitorous Fire Lord would regret letting some snow savage and dirt girl get married in the palace. Course I said something that pissed them off."

"You've changed," he said with a nod. I just nodded my head. It was obvious that both of us had changed.

We lapsed back into silence, the tension still prevalent between us.

"We should arrive at the palace by tomorrow," he said and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "Katara can look at your wound."

"I wonder if I could heal it myself, I've never tried it before." It was the first time I'd thought of it.

"I didn't know if waterbenders could heal themselves," Zuko said as he met my gaze again. I looked away but could still feel his gaze.

"I can try it, do you have any clean water?" I asked him. He stood and rummaged through a small sac that was mixed in with the various saddle bags. He pulled out a water canister and handed it to me.

"It's all the drinking water we have left," he said as he knelt down next to me. I felt my heart beat quicken at his nearness, how was it possible that I could loath someone so much, yet still desire his touch? I wanted to scream in frustration.

"I won't use a lot," I said as I set the canteen on the ground next to me. I pulled up my shirt so that I could see my wound. It was still covered in the tight wrappings that Zuko had done sometime while I was unconscious. I started unwrapping myself, but winced when I tried to stretch my arms around the back of me, Zuko then helped me undress the wound.

It was awkward that the wound had to be in a spot that involved my upper torso being bare. Once I was unwrapped I was able see the festering hole in my side. The arrow that had struck me must have been poisoned. The wound was bright pink around the edges and there were red streaks sliding outward across my skin.

"It looks worse than a few days ago," Zuko said as he pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at me with worried golden eyes. For a moment it felt like all the years we'd been apart had disappeared. This was the Zuko who I'd fallen in love with.

"The arrow was poisoned," I said and reached for the canteen. I poured a small amount of the water into my hand and start bending it around my fingers. It felt good to play with the water. It'd been a while since I'd had the chance to do any bending, even such simple bending as this. I gently placed my hands over the wound. I could feel the heat emanating from the putrid flesh.

I began to redirect some of the energy paths within my own body, my hands began to softly glow and it felt like it was working. Then, as I moved my hands closer to the wound itself, the pain became unbearable. I dropped the water onto the bed roll and cried out as I slumped to the side.

"Lin?" Zuko exclaimed as he reached out and stopped me from landing on the wound.

"I'm fine," I choked out. "I just don't think I can heal myself," I said as I gulped in a mouthful of air. My side was burning worse than it had been when I first woke up.

"We should move on, you need to see a Katara." I looked up into Zuko's eyes and saw a feverish light in their depths.

"Zuko you're exhausted," I whispered. "You need your rest more than me." I looked down at the wound and saw that the streaks of red had become longer and darker. "I'll be fine, let's sleep." I said and looked back up at him. I felt odd saying that, but my vision was slowly starting to go black. I'd have to worry about rewrapping my side later. I fought the pain and managed to settle down in the bed roll as cautiously and quickly as I could. I heard Zuko slowly getting into the bed roll as well. I couldn't keep my eyes open, and passed out before I realized it had happened.


End file.
